Ten Hundred Thousand Suns Rising to Hail You
by Cytrus
Summary: Suzumiya Haruhi was God. But when that became the last hope, the only thing this world could rely on...
1. Solitary Grave Visiting

**AN:** Welcome, dear readers. This story ties in with Elusive Dominion and Architecture. As such, it is advised to read at least the former before reading this story.

As you enter the maze of Suzumiya Haruhi, remember that not all answers come easy, and that vines of confusion always hide the truth.

- Cytrus

* * *

_School playgrounds. Four years ago. Tanabata._

And a location and time listed below:

_Outside Michikata station. Twelve o'clock._

That was the unimpressive everything there was to the letter Haruhi found at her doorstep.

Haruhi rarely got mail. It was disappointing that it turned out to be some lame prank, a few worthless lines on low-quality paper. But she didn't care that much.

She didn't care. Didn't care. Did not.

She repeated it desperately in her mind like some sort of mantra, clutching the most important letter in her life in her right hand, breathless and running faster, faster! It was nearly twelve!

Tanabata four years ago. Her apparently failed attempt at communicating with extraterrestrial creatures. More importantly, her first and only contact with the self-proclaimed John Smith. The boy clad in the uniform of her current high school who declared himself a time-traveler. She didn't know who he was. But he was special. He was one of a kind.

She had chosen her high school, the place where she was supposed to spend three years of her life, based on the off chance of meeting him. Today, she came back home thinking of homework and the SOS Brigade. When she read the letter, dropping her plans, schoolbag, everything, none of it required a conscious thought of hers.

The people at the station never knew what hit them as she elbowed her way through their ranks. They didn't even seem to notice or care. "Danger", "typhoon to strike" – their slightly panicked voices just barely managed to reach her ears.

She had watched the weather forecast the day before – it was "warm, few clouds".

Finally, she fought her way into the open space in front of the station, the only place she could think of suitable for a meeting.

John Smith wasn't there, she judged immediately. Disappointment hit hard. But she wasn't being set up. There, in the middle of a rushing sea of bodies, stood a distinctly calm female figure, her back turned to Haruhi. The girl's short brown hair was almost familiar, and Haruhi decided it could be no coincidence.

In that instant, her meeter turned around and confidently headed in her direction, confirming Haruhi's suspicions. She did recognize the face – it was that old friend of Kyon's. Sasaki, was it? They had met once, twice maybe.

Haruhi couldn't see the connection. How could the girl know about what had happened four years ago? Rumors, most likely. That was to be expected. Why had she gotten so excited about it, anyway? What was it, then? If Kyon prepared this as some sort of practical joke she'd make sure he suffered terribly-

She was so caught up in her growing irritation she never noticed Sasaki closing the distance between them completely.

"Suzumiya-san. Even in these circumstances, it was a pleasure."

Haruhi blinked, broken out of her reverie. What did the girl want from her?

Sasaki extended her hand and rested it on Haruhi's shoulder.

First, Haruhi wondered what gave the girl the right to violate her personal space.

Second, she realized, with no logical reasoning behind it, but with painful clarity, that something horrible, horrible happened.

**Chapter 1**

**Solitary Grave Visiting**

The screech was tremendous as the chasm's jaws contorted, twisted and in what seemed a final desperate lunge enclosed her diminutive form in a prison of ebony.

Within the newly-born void, the gravity forces were akin to a rapacious predator – first sucking in all air and then moving onto stable matter, meticulously tearing it apart and devouring it with no forthcoming satiation. But the space was not left lacking – atramentous tendrils infused, pervaded it, resembling volcanic fumes emerging from a sea of obsidian – but they were not that. Because all similarity to existence had to be mere deception for what was _not_ – the very nemesis of _being_, compressed, embodied non-existence, death realized and craving to extinguish, to undo.

Yuki Nagato did not yield.

_0x08213db1 in pdoocihandlefactory ()#3 0x082068b1 in zimPDOdbhconstructor ()#4 0x084978b9 in executeinternal ()#50xb6589b51 inxdebugexecute internal (currentexecut0000000000xxxx#RETRY_

This meant she was unable to reform surrounding data, there wasn't any, and

_Caught exception: SQLSTATE42S02: pdoocihandlefactory: ORA-12154:_

_TNS:could not resolve the connect identifier specified (/opt/php/src/ext/pdooci/ocidriver.c:462)_

The interference was damaging her – her corporeal, element-based anchoring structure system – body, yes, but even deeper, wishing to swallow her whole.

_Celladdress val. K87763 Purge?_

_Celladdress val. K87763 Confirm?_

This merely meant, there would be no justification for her holding back.

_Yes._

The implosion dislocated her arm – that, she felt first. Then the piercing power exploded outward. It tore the appendage apart completely before passing through her frame and the stretching void, wrinkling both as if they were paper.

Throughout the whole ordeal, Yuki Nagato did not move, made sure not to twitch. The droplets of blood slowly streaming down her body remained undisturbed as an incandescent light enveloped her and shot out into the space around.

The boundary of her confinement reacted immediately, twisting away, bulging and cracking everywhere on its surface. The rays tore through darkness and shot outside – it was seconds before all that was left of the abomination to reality fluttered harmlessly around the humanoid interface.

But even long after the last of the dark mass crumbled away, she was still standing motionlessly, peering deep into the onyx eyes of her assailant – those perfectly round orbs were forever indifferent, even now, and they gave rise to so much terror not because they were so intent, but because the origin of that gaze was incomprehensible; neither logic nor emotion present to be read.

This, and a horrible extent of annihilating power, were all there was to the existence of Suou Kuyou.

For the most part, time passed as Yuki observed. The remaining part was there because the artificial space stretched even the fourth dimension to its limits, grinding each slipping second nearly to a halt, realizing it, capturing it again. Partial desynchronization was death. Humans couldn't even comprehend it, four-dimensional interfaces could barely avoid it, and Kuyou ignored it, utterly unaffected. It was the law of this all-defiled world, and the horridness of it was calming, emboldening.

She could still escape.

There was nothing around her. The surrounding data was void, burned into soot and then even further into garbled radiation. All connections had been terminated and, for the first time in her life, her data senses gave no response, almost convincing her she no longer existed.

She could still escape – she was a data entity. Even when her opponent renewed her assault – she could confirm that through the primitive light-reliant receptors her form possessed – she should still have dedicated herself to resolving the quagmire of broken data links and returning her consciousness to equilibrium. That was more important than blocking any attack – it ascertained her non-physical survival.

Except that for Yuki, the will to win took priority.

She leapt forward. The ground broke under her feet, the darkness lurched to follow, air swished in her ears and buffeted her short hair. And then she was there, the entity opposing her retreated – fell back a centimeter, maybe two. That was too little. That was too late! Her still-whole left arm swung, connected in a devastating blow.

Air waves could no longer ripple freely in the modified space. Which was why the noise of the bones in her hand and arm snapping never reached Yuki herself.

But she did feel wetness on her clutching fingers – another primitive sensation rapidly fading as her cells entered narcosis one by one – after a mere second's contact with the quantum life-form's anti-liquid intensities.

Even with half her head caved in, the Canopy Domain interface was unmoved, her gaze reminiscent of a dull, lifeless stone. There wasn't the smallest change in her demeanor as the reality around them began to shift once more. But the searing frost of Yuki's eyes bore no hesitation.

A single twist of her wrist – Suou Kuyou was no more.

The vacuum was reversed – the artificial space caved in and was sucked back into its birthplace, the energy infesting the area relinquished its hold, finally, the uniform mass of black which was once an alien crumbled and folded on itself, simply disappearing.

And then, for a split-second, through the gaping holes in the room's ceiling, Yuki saw the skies.

The heavens were black, angry, malevolent. And the boisterous thunders of theirs were little more than a preface to the typhoon which was soon to hit the islands. The weather forecast had said, not a day prior, "sunny, few clouds", Yuki had candidly hoped for snow, it hailed, and now she thought all of these were equally fitting to accompany the end of the world – and here she was, gazing at the skies while her friends were fighting and dying.

The magic moment ended when time and space forcefully realigned themselves.

It all exploded. Mass returned. Air expanded. Broken glass from seemingly nowhere soared like shrapnel. Objects combusted spontaneously. The building shook, swayed, stood still – swayed again. What remained of the ceiling fell in, crushing everything on its way.

And in the middle of this hell was the battered body of Yuki Nagato.

She stood, somehow. But that was all. Her eyes were closed – the explosive decompression had blinded them. Recovery process was in queue. She couldn't hear – the membranes in her ears were no more than shreds. Recovery process was in queue. Touch and pain receptors had been cut off when the amount of wounds exceeded ninety million. Recovery processes for those were far in the long, long queue.

She stood – an autistic child in the middle of a wasteland, desperately reforming data links.

Which was why there was no way for her to register the five dozen spears heading her way – she did not feel the impalement – the first thing she realized was the familiarity of the backdoor programs attempting to scramble her databases.

"-y, my, you shouldn't be so reckless with your body" as her hearing returned "Don't forget you need it to be in one piece if you wish to properly interact with surrounding data."

The tissue in her eyes reformed, and her eyelids snapped open.

Those graceful footsteps could belong to one entity only, Yuki knew, and indeed, the rogue humanoid interface was but meters away from her. Just as Yuki recalled, but had once been hard-pressed to appropriately describe, there was something raptorial to Asakura Ryoko. It was nothing alike her previous encounter – Kuyou had been void-incarnate and the destruction she heralded had lacked spirit, character. Ryoko was different, because the irises of her eyes invited flames to envelop her, because the very air they breathed would be infused and overcome with her intent. Asakura Ryoko's bloodlust had transcended mere data because, deep down, she had become human enough to truly feel it.

"Long time no see…"

And she remained inhuman enough for her deadly smile to be devoid of poison even as she severed life.

"…Yuki-chan."

The demon stopped, as if not wanting to thread upon the rivulets of blood now streaking under Yuki's feet in a variety of patterns. But this respectful distance only contradicted the pity and laughter in her sickly-green eyes.

Logic told Yuki not to react, to save every second she had for regeneration only. She disliked this judgment. She loathed embracing her own powerlessness in the face of provocation. If it were just her and her ambition, if she didn't have lives to save…

Ryoko frowned. It was good-natured, that frown, one of a child understanding why it cannot play, but wishing to nevertheless.

"He's nearly dead, you know, that Koizumi Itsuki."

She commented lightly, "gossip tone", she called it, used it, never comprehended it, enjoyed it, detested it – not the tone itself, maybe the way people would react to that tone and differently to another – as if the very same essence from which the words came did not have the right to be acknowledged.

Yuki didn't need to hear that, though. Because Ryoko was positive the smaller girl knew and understood.

"The interspatial collapse they manufactured not only sucked out Tachibana and her friends, but went on to skew gravity, cause earthquakes and make volcanoes erupt. Oh, and it tore most of them to pieces, too. Too much power, I suppose."

Yuki glared – Ryoko smirked. They both needed it now and badly – to hate each other like they couldn't before, to ascertain they were not as close to each other as they actually were – prime copy and backup, birds of a feather, sisters. That was so inappropriate and even more discomforting.

"You should see the time-travelers fighting, though. They are jumping all around timespace, preventing each other's births or discoveries, some of them, and the rest just changing random things in the past, hoping to affect the future. How absurd it all seems, with our knowledge. But we were jealous of them. You were jealous and I was jealous. Of their freedom of absurdity."

The time was drawing near, they both knew. Because it was only for so long that Ryoko could maintain a clear advantage while doing nothing to capitalize on it – already Yuki's arms were almost completely reformed, her recovery becoming ever faster.

"Your data patterns have changed." the smaller interface spoke up for the first time "You've breached the modification limits of the Integrated Data Thought Entity's proscriptions. Explain yourself and abandon this forbidden activity."

Ryoko's frown grew deeper, angry. Yuki was to be the only one to ever see the blue-haired girl frown this way, but Ryoko despised deception, couldn't stand being played with. Not that she failed to understand the need for it – her understanding of "interactional dynamics" had already surpassed that of any human by light-years – but logic would fail to overcome her emotions again and again. She was born like this, faulty, some would say, to this world.

"Acknowledge me!"

Her voice was playful steel and jocular iron.

"This is the Integrated Data Thought Entity and the Macrospatial Quantum Cosmic Existence combined. This is the furtherance of our ambitions and dreams – our evolution!" Already she was losing control "The Entity is static! It's doomed, dead, hopeless! It needs to be forsaken to reach new heights!" the green glow in her eyes grew more apparent "I want even you, only you of them all if there is no other way…"

"Acknowledge this!"

The answer to Ryoko's fervor was silence. After all, there was no objective reason for Yuki Nagato to answer to such mad, senseless ramblings. She could gain no advantage through responding, there was no obligation for her to do so, and anything but staying silent would be a needless comfort.

So she wouldn't answer.

Why would she?

"The continued existence of the Integrated Data Thought Entity as is has long ceased to be mine priority also."

Human eye would be too lacking to see them exchange blows.

Ryoko's left arm penetrated Yuki's innards just as the right one crumbled into radiant dust.

They stood still.

"Even then, that first time" Asakura spoke, and her voice was laden with a curious melancholy "You shouldn't have been able to beat me in my own data jurisdiction field, any difference in ability notwithstanding… Were you already mingling your data with that of Suzumiya Haruhi? Were you trying to find out how far you could go beyond your inborn abilities?"

Pause. Yuki couldn't answer. She couldn't breathe. Couldn't repair the damage done. It was surprisingly, awkwardly painful.

"This is the same, in a sense. I have your data sectors analyzed from before you destroyed me. And now, the Quantum Existence allows me to dampen even the smallest amount of data manipulation they could produce. One infinitely small energy bubble for each of your data sequences, placed and formed perfectly for this task only. I've made you… quite human." her smile widened earnestly "One of the things you've always wanted, isn't it?"

Yuki stared at her wordlessly. One of her hands grasped Asakura's arm still embedded in her stomach, trying to pull it out. Ryoko ignored the effort entirely.

"You have brilliant eyes, you know?" she quipped "Somehow, they seem even more intent than I remembered them."

Yuki stopped struggling and raised her other trembling hand to Ryoko's face.

"Hostile program analyzed and identified: Asakura Ryoko. Preparing for target data structure removal."

Ryoko simply smiled.

"You cannot."

For an excruciatingly long time, they kept silent. There were some things which could not be conveyed in words, but could be understood without them.

And then, after four years, everything ended, with the words of the reticent interface-

"Your analysis was outdated. I no longer…"

-quietly-

"…wear glasses."

-and a bright flash following them.

**XXX**

Haruhi twisted away in revulsion, Sasaki's face momentarily blurred in her vision.

Not a second later, she was grateful for their separation – the sky roared. The clear blue cloudless sky roared and spit out thunder. It made no sense.

And then she was blinded. It hit, two steps away from her, right into the awaiting, accepting Sasaki.

And then she flew, light, uncontrollable like a feather in a storm.

And then she came to. Regained her sight to see a different world. A world with no sun strong enough to pierce the brewing clouds, with a short-haired angel of destruction surrounded by people too stupefied to flee in terror, a world no less surreal than the ones she had so fervently sought.

It was the same old world, only Haruhi wouldn't accept it, it made no sense. It made no sense.

Sasaki raised a single finger, without hesitation, a small finger of hers, and all the people watching snapped like dolls, raining a shower of blood.

It made no sense.

* * *

**AN:** Review and save the God-Empress xD! Until next time!


	2. With Credit to Spare

**Last chapter: **What was supposed to be another boring day for Haruhi soon turned into a nightmare as an encounter with Sasaki goes horribly wrong. Chaos engulfs the world as Haruhi's friends make the greatest sacrifice to protect her... but does she have the power to make sure that sacrifice wasn't in vain?

* * *

There had been tough decisions Koizumi Itsuki had to make in his life.

Like right now, as he flipped the cell phone in his hand open and closed, open and closed again and again as the wait stretched into infinity.

He should just call her. He could talk to her, unsupervised and with no interruptions. At least for a minute or two. Kyon would be coming soon, too.

He calculated once more the distance and the time needed to cover it. Kyon wouldn't waste even a second getting here, that much was certain. Itsuki wanted to believe that some chance event of the numerous possible would slow him down, a collapsed building in his way, yet another earthquake, most anything would work. He did recognize his own wishful thinking, however. As long as this world existed and Haruhi was God, eternally, coincidence was on Kyon's side when it mattered most.

Itsuki didn't need more than a minute, though. If need be, three words would suffice. It would be quite pointless, true, but he should just call.

He flipped the phone lid open, closed.

The still-distant swearing which reached him was entirely expected, but Itsuki couldn't help a different kind of surprise rising within him.

Yet another chance he let slip past him doing nothing: thinking, playing with the phone, lying on the edge of the crater with the remains of a recently collapsed wall as his only support and company.

He could indulge in his penchant for drama and call it a most apt finale for his life, inconsequential as it was. But bitter thoughts would have to wait; he now had an acquaintance to entertain.

**Chapter 2**

**With Credit to Spare and No Time Left at All**

Kyon emerged from behind the damaged wall making for a satisfactory sight. The boy was heaving, swaying, his clothes wet from sweat, sticking to his body, one sleeve of his shirt torn on something-or-other on the way. Kyon surpassed expectations – he'd be perfect material for an action flick lead: brave, willing, determined – it all radiated from the usually ordinary high school student.

Ever the perfectionist, Itsuki would only change the informal clothes to something more Spartan. The shell-shocked expression had to go, too.

"You!"

Kyon's exclamation was supposed to be only a begging to their chat but, for a few seconds, it had nothing to come after it. The gasping boy was lost searching for the proper expletive.

Itsuki grinned genially. Was he a picture so pitiful he could enact no rage, even from someone so emotionally disturbed?

"_Yo, Kyon." – _It was supposed to come out, but didn't.

Instinct took over as Itsuki lunged forward coughing, spiting out the blood he had choked on. The urge to vomit overcame him once more, but this time there wasn't anything left in his stomach.

"Yo, Kyon." The second attempt went far better.

Kyon overlooked the colloquiality of the greeting, even if it was coming from the usually tactful Itsuki. And he surrendered the notion of insulting the other boy.

"You didn't tell me you could do telepathy!" Kyon accused, indignant.

Itsuki spread his arms open weakly, a completely unapologetic smile on his face.

"I can't, most of the time. Doing that in uncontrolled circumstances would make me a lightning rod for an alien attack, whichever faction we take into account."

Kyon was put off. Was Koizumi implying mistrust for Nagato's people at a time like this? He opened his mouth to protest, but stopped. Itsuki's annoyingly cheerful eyes got to him, and it so happened that the first ever attempt on his life had come from a humanoid interface. He'd just change the topic and ask about-

The silence remained.

What would he ask about? He didn't understand enough to ask general questions, wouldn't dare ask the specific ones. Where were they? Were they safe? Alive?

He had just come expecting a smiling Koizumi to explain all, just like he always did. But now, seeing his bloodstained colleague, he understood things were already too far from normal.

Itsuki laughed at his consternation, even if it was obvious even shaking from laughter cost him a lot of pain.

"My bad. I suppose this is the part when we get down to business."

Itsuki waved invitingly. Kyon hesitated, giving the esper his traditional distrusting glare. He couldn't hold it for long, however. He gave in under his companion's firm smile and kneeled next to the wounded boy.

For the next few seconds, Itsuki remained absorbed in silent contemplation, almost making Kyon believe his patience and nerves were being tested.

And then Itsuki's smile vanished and he attacked Kyon with a deadly forehead poke.

Kyon lost his balance. His eyes widened – he wasn't expecting the prick to-. But he had to extend his hand for support or he would fall. It was a simple action, his mind said.

But he couldn't He couldn't even-

_Oh my God._

He gaped at the pale blue sky. Was it really there? Not that it was out of the ordinary, that wasn't it. But just a second before…

And he finally fell. The collision with the hard ground proved painful. He landed in the least graceful way possible, all of his mass pinning his twisted arm to the ground.

It took him a moment to gather his wits. What was he doing here? The images of Mikuru, Yuki… even Haruhi, all three facing deadly danger, were so clear in his head. And yet he was here, lounging around a nondescript and halfway collapsed building for no reason whatsoever.

"Cough. Cough."

Kyon's ears twitched in surprise at the sound. He lifted his searching for its source. Sitting near him was the patiently smiling Koizumi Itsuki.

Kyon connected the dots. He had been in this one place the whole time, never mowing a single step. Not when he saw Mikuru dissolving – her existence half-defied by a time displacement attack. Not when he saw Yuki stoically entering a sphere of antimatter. Not even when Haruhi, terrified, lying in a pool of thick blood, seemed to be so close to him.

"More… more of your psychic power crap, Itsuki?" he choked out.

"I'm quite proud of it, actually," The esper responded "If you'd like to know the details behind the process, I'd be more than happy to elaborate on it."

"**Shut up!" **

Kyon didn't know what made him yell. It was probably the combination of Itsuki's carefree tone and his fake smile. Still, Kyon momentarily forgot what he had to say.

Itsuki, helpful as always, aided him in jogging his memory.

"Disturbed, Kyon?" he asked cheerfully.

"Don't just sit there!" the inexplicable anger was back "Tell me how to save…" he hesitated "how to save…"

And his voice died in his throat once more for a different reason entirely.

A glare full of scorn, a violent smirk hiding clenched teeth, a face recoiling from him in revulsion, all of them oozing contempt. Kyon never imagined Itsuki's face could take on that expression. And in his worst nightmares he never thought it would be aimed at him.

"It's quite uncanny how your voice wavers before you make a choice." Itsuki ventured "But that's just it, isn't it. You've always been spoiled with choices. And here you are, deciding whom to save and whom to abandon."

Kyon's jaw dropped. He, he didn't have time to protest-

"But that's fine, for you, I suppose." Itsuki went on without pausing "It was never your conflict In the first place. Just another ill-deserved privilege of being chosen by her."

As his lips articulated that last sentence, Itsuki's eyes shone with an even more disturbing light. Kyon wasn't sure which was stronger: the urge to punch the man for his words or the fear screaming at him to run away.

"But if you do care about Suzumiya-san," Itsuki went on, flipping the cell phone in his hand open "maybe you should give her a call?"

Kyon's body leapt before his stunned mind could order it to. His hand grasped at air, and then he was losing his balance, falling and again lying sprawled on the ground.

Itsuki laughed quietly.

"I suppose you can still be a little dizzy" he said "psychic channeling tends to be demanding on newcomers. It might all be for the better, though."

He closed the phone.

"What are you fooling around for?" Kyon muttered weakly "Wasn't protecting her the Organization's duty?"

Itsuki took his eyes off Kyon and looked uninterestedly at the sky.

"Suzumiya-san read the Bible, inspired it, or wrote it herself" he responded "which is why before this very hour, the Organization was twelve. And now it is one."

He didn't wait for acknowledgement before going on.

"Twelve. God and her Apostles. That part seemed to us merely an impression left over by her whimsical interest in religion."

"But we **misjudged!**" Koizumi's arm cut through the air with all the energy he had left in him, as if he deemed words alone couldn't convey the meaning enough.

"It went deeper than that. Does the Bible not show God being outdone? At least would our enemies not seek inspiration within it?"

Koizumi's arm fell back to the ground.

"There was a traitor within the Twelve. A Judas Iscariot who sold out our God."

Kyon was afraid. And captivated all the same. As if he couldn't tune out the words of disaster, look away from Itsuki's grimace.

"We were blind to the possibility. How? The Twelve were born loyal to Haruhi. And we were perfectly hidden, our powers, our identities. Few humans had the power and influence to single any of us out. And those few would not have the knowledge of Haruhi… or the ability to manipulate any one of us."

Koizumi nodded to himself, rediscovering the reasoning behind his thoughts.

"And we thought, should there exist a power great enough to wipe us out, would it not have to face our allies? Do not get me wrong, Kyon. We used the time travelers and aliens to the greatest extent possible, and they returned this sentiment. To them, the Organization was a group of powerless, but knowledgeable humans who would give their all to preserving the stats quo. That's why we were a tool worth protecting."

Itsuki's eyes returned to staring at Kyon's face.

"And now I wonder who could have approached all three forces close enough to make sure all would be betrayed, who had the power to unite all three devils standing against us into one Mephistopheles, who could so easily convince that Sasaki to become a sacrificial lamb, and I find it so incredible, Kyon, that were you not now before me, I'd put all my money on you."

The smile, the ever pleasant smile, was back on Itsuki's face.

"Then again, I'm about as good at gambling as I am at board games."

"Itsuki." Kyon fumbled for words, even if the menacing aura within his friend seemed to have magically disappeared "I don't know what you're saying or what's going on, but… could you just hand me the phone?"

"I am not attempting to delay your contact with Suzumiya-san" Itsuki responded immediately "Talking to you is in her best interest, and what's good for her is good for us all – we loved Suzumiya-san to the utmost, in every way possible. But you know, this cell phone has no restrictions on calls. Once I hand it over, you'll have all the time in the world to speak to her, and I'm quite jealous. Do understand, then, this small bit of selfishness on my part."

Kyon didn't understand at all, but Itsuki was already pressing the first button on his speed dial – that was his most important number, after all. And he didn't wait for the receiver to pick up before speaking.

"Suzumiya-san. I understand you might not be in a position allowing you to take this message properly, but I know you can hear me and I implore you, listen carefully." Itsuki narrated "It is of paramount importance that you realize that whatever you might be seeing is one hundred percent real. Moreover, it is only a single incident of many that have been occurring for the past three years that can only be labeled as supernatural. Of course, in the face of what is happening, you must be afraid for your own safety. I hurry to assure you, no harm may possibly be incurred upon you. No matter what the person before you has become, you remain a thousand times above her. You will certainly learn more about this in the coming hours, although I cannot help it being the hard way. I may only sincerely apologize for not being there to guide you through this personally."

Itsuki fell silent and closed his eyes. Even in his woozy state, Kyon considered leaping forward and snatching the phone from him. This was another game – the esper wasn't dead, was he? His chest was moving, slowly, but still…

Kyon didn't pluck up the courage soon enough and Itsuki's eyes snapped wide open.

Once more, Kyon thought he didn't recognize the esper's face. Not when it was set alight with a burning determination, twisted with passion. And the so-unrestricted Itsuki spoke, lived, died, all very shortly.

"Haruhi. I loved the piercing eyes. All of you, but your eyes the most."

And he immediately handed the phone to Kyon, almost threw it into his face, no reservations, as if dealing with hot iron. And Kyon, so impatient, so urgent but a second ago, didn't take it.

_Loved her to the utmost, in every way possible._

It was quite obvious after all and maybe it was just Kyon being too used to being spoon-fed answers why he didn't realize, didn't notice in time.

The cell phone now seemed foreboding, too distant to be reached and too heavy to be lifted, he couldn't simply reach out his hand and take it, right?

"You're not waiting for me to croak, I hope?" Itsuki questioned merrily.

Kyon's finger's closed gingerly around the device. And then he was catching it, surprised, as Itsuki's hand simply collapsed from under it.

It took a mere second for Itsuki to deflate like some balloon, and then he moved no more.

Kyon backed away, averting his eyes. He had seen giant cockroaches deleted in great flashes of light and slaughters in those late-night movies, but this wasn't a joke and was a bit too simple and real.

He focused on the device in his hand.

"_Hi, Haruhi! It's Kyon."_

Could he say that? Did he have the right to say that, wasting away seconds another had, Itsuki had craved?

"Haruhi. This is John Smith."

And soon there was a bleep, and then labored, terrified breathing from the other side.

Kyon could wait a second, and listen to questions. Some he'd be able to answer and others he feared even thinking about. But the option seemed somehow unappealing, even disgusting, and his finger went to the power button without giving it much thought.

And before he pressed it, the only thing he really had to say.

"You are God."

* * *

**AN:** Thank you for reading the second chapter of Ten Hundred Thousand Suns Rising to Hail You. If the previous chapter showed the opposition abandoning all restraints, this one is an equally drastic response from our heroes. Although Kyon and Itsuki didn't have much time to shine in my works to date, the circumstances they are acting under here force out some characteristics you wouldn't usually expect from them. Still, I tried not to go wild with them.

While Haruhi's fate remains uncertain, the next chapter may finally answer the most important question: Why?

**Preview:** Tsuruya saw the girl's eyes brighten in response to this gesture, and this insignificant detail was enough to convince her. The girl was everything Tsuruya needed, everything she had heard, and everything she had hoped for. In this greatest gamble of all, she was enough to rekindle Tsuruya's hope.

See you next time!


	3. Tsumi

**AN:** Welcome to the third, and so far longest, installment. Thank you for reading and reviewing. If you don't know what shougi is, look it up at wikipedia.

More comments at the end :p.

**Last chapter:** Itsuki leaves his companions behind, his heart full of regret. Haruhi has to face the truth of her real self. Kyon observes the carnage, the responsibility on his shoulders far beyond his powers... And no one knows the most important thing. What devilish force swung the pendulum of destruction?

* * *

"Make sure you don't ever mention this trip to me, alright?" Tsuruya asked cheerfully "I would be very sad if I heard others chatting about it, too, so try not to spread rumors" and she added "After all, it's for the sake of your job, sa!"

The flabbergasted driver could only nod his head fervently as he hurried to drive the limo as far away from the exuberant heiress as possible.

She hadn't expected the opportunity to present itself to her so soon and had been forced to cut some corners to make use of it, but here she was, all ready to make it happen. If those fellows had allowed themselves to slip a whole week before the point of no return, then so be it.

Tsuruya looked around the neighborhood. People passing by were giving her curious glances, but it was no wonder. She had driven here straight from a negotiation meeting, still clad in official attire. For the populace inhabiting the run-of-the-mill apartment blocks in the area, the sight of anything more than a simple summer yukata was likely a rare occasion. At the very least, they'd judge her as terribly overdressed if they knew her expensive kimono was to serve its purpose during an entirely casual visit.

Because "casual visit" was what Tsuruya liked to think of it as.

With this thought in mind, she challenged the staircase. It was only the second floor, but still she cursed the absence of an elevator. It wasn't that she was overworked, but still she found herself with little strength to spare, her heavy breathing reminding her of the fact. She had no choice but to make do, however.

In a few moments she was already before the door to number seven. She checked the nameplate to confirm it was the right address. And then she rested her back against a wall to catch her breath.

The coughing fit which caught up to her wasn't entirely unexpected, and she decided to just let it out of her system, covering her mouth with her hands to stifle the noise. The coughs were seemingly painful, but this feeling was somewhat muted, like everything else she had felt in the recent weeks.

There, on her hands, was blood. With bloodstained clothes, she would probably look like a serial killer trying to lure another victim out – an image Tsuruya didn't much care for. She frowned and closed her eyes. When she opened them again a second later, all the crimson was gone. After all, there had been a possibility for her to cough everything out without getting dirty. And as long as a possibility existed, it could be forced into becoming reality. Tsuruya was already getting used to the idea.

With a small sigh, she knocked on the door.

**Chapter 3**

**Tsumi**

**(jap. Checkmate/Sin)**

Even on this late hour, she was not kept waiting for long – the barrier of dark brown swung open, and in its wake came a pair of equally rich brown eyes. There was no welcome in this gaze and neither was there any surprise, any curiosity of this unexpected guest.

"Good evening" Tsuruya greeted.

"Good evening. May I be of help?" Sasaki responded levelly.

If there was any hostility, it was held back by discipline perfectly. And if there was suspicion, Tsuruya could not discern it.

That alone didn't mean much, but Tsuruya felt her spirits lift nevertheless. She was going on rumors alone, but if even half of what they said proved to be true, she would require nothing more.

Finally, Tsuruya reached into her kimono to retrieve her passport.

What reaction the usage of official documents instead of a self-introduction would garner from any normal person, Tsuruya could only guess. But she was long-aware that in a few days' time, all the faux pas in the world would be rendered moot. And she had bet enough on this gambit for there to be no such thing as going overboard.

"I apologize for the late hour, Sasaki-san, but could I take a few minutes of your time?"

She bowed lightly and handed the passport to Sasaki.

Sasaki didn't hold back taking it. In fact, her eyes seemed to momentarily brighten at the gesture, before they sharpened as they flew over the data and numbers gathered in the document, sometimes coming back to Tsuruya to compare details.

Sasaki nodded in recognition of Tsuruya's last name, and Tsuruya grinned at how absorbed the other girl appeared. This made her fang – another slightly infamous family trait, show. That clinched it.

More than anything else, it was the patience and willingness with which her visitor underwent this inspection that endeared Tsuruya to Sasaki.

"Do come in, Tsuruya-san" Sasaki invited, returning the passport.

Entering the bright interior of the apartment, Tsuruya took off her shoes, and Sasaki offered her a pair of fuzzy slippers in their place.

"If you had intended to speak with my parents, I'm afraid both are absent. Father should be back in an hour or so, though" Sasaki informed, leading Tsuruya through a corridor.

But Tsuruya knew this. Sasaki's mother was abroad and her father had a business meeting. Calling in a few favors, she had even made sure the meeting would run especially long.

"Head" Sasaki warned, leaning her own head to the side.

Too puzzled to follow Sasaki's example, Tsuruya smacked face-first into a chicken hanging from the ceiling.

Soon after, she was trying to steady the decoration with one hand, check her face for permanent damage with the other one and give Sasaki a questioning look all at the same time.

"Good luck charm. Father's. Don't ask."

Tsuruya didn't miss the smirk on Sasaki's face.

The guest room contained no further surprises – it was orderly and well-kept, with wooden furniture and the walls a pristine white. Tsuruya noted the earthquake detector on the wall (safety first, sensibly) and the shougi board resting in the corner.

"Should I change?" Sasaki asked without really meaning it, or rather not believing Tsuruya would mind. Tsuruya smiled to confirm the girl's suspicions.

Certainly, they made up a queer pair, Tsuruya in her costly kimono and Sasaki in short pants and a plain T-shirt, the latter with a few slowly fading water stains decorating it.

Home alone, Sasaki had just finished washing the dishes after a self-prepared dinner. That explained the stains. Tsuruya suspected the informal clothing was Sasaki's usual at-home attire even when not doing house chores, though.

No, she didn't mind. She had taken those circumstances into account when planning her visit, and beggars can't be choosers.

"Have a sit, then" Sasaki offered, pointing at the sofa.

This time around, Tsuruya ignored the offer entirely, choosing instead to wander over to the shougi board and plopping herself in front of it. She traced the board's edges with her hand. It was the real deal: large, thick and made from fine wood. The polished surface reflected light cheerfully.

"Will you humor me?" Tsuruya asked with a small smile. And it was Sasaki's turn to be surprised, if only for a second. And then she went to join Tsuruya across the board.

"My mother's a professional player and a good teacher" Sasaki offered as a warning "Should I play with a handicap?"

Tsuruya shook her head.

"Don't worry, I know the rules."

This was not the answer Sasaki had wanted, but she had little time to protest as her visitor had already started taking out pieces and setting them on the board.

Sasaki moved into seiza – the traditional sitting form, entirely by force of habit. Not a second later, she saw Tsuruya follow suit. Both girls had good form, Sasaki's back being just a bit more stiff, as if betraying her uncompromising personality.

As they finished setting the pieces, Tsuruya had to look over at Sasaki's side to confirm her placement of the pieces was correct. To her credit, however, she had taken the jeweled general for herself and left the royal general piece, traditionally played by the more experienced player, to Sasaki. In everything but name and design, the pieces were identical and, compared to the western game of chess, served the role of a player's king piece.

"What kind of game?" Sasaki asked, hoping for Tsuruya to change her mind and request a handicap.

"Five seconds per move."

Sasaki blinked.

Tsuruya's hand wandered to the board before Sasaki could properly respond. She took her own rook and bishop, her two strongest pieces, and placed them away from the board.

Tsuruya looked up at Sasaki and her playful smile widened when she met the other girl's disapproving, berating gaze.

"Five seconds per move" Tsuruya repeated "Humor me, and don't hold back, Sasaki."

Sasaki's dignity hurting was evident on her face. Amateurs going easy on her simply didn't happen, and Tsuruya's suddenly direct manner of speech only served to irk her further.

And then the wisp of annoyance in her heart died, put out by a waterfall of Logic. Sasaki weighed the pros and cons, sought for Tsuruya's motive, found that the extremely fast variation would indeed benefit Tsuruya if she had come with a plan ready, and then allowed for the possibility of this being more amusement than challenge or insult.

First and foremost, the calming voice of reason made her realize she had nothing to lose and was not afraid at all.

"If you so wish, I'll give it my all" She announced, giving a short bow afterwards.

Tsuruya responded with a bow of her own and opened the game immediately after.

The soft click of wood connecting with wood had yet to die down when it repeated from the other side of the board. Sasaki wasted little time grasping the pieces, and her arm moved with speed like that of a swordsman.

Tsuruya never stopped to contemplate her next move, calmly commanding her pieces as if it was something she had done a hundred times already, even if she paid special attention not to accidentally drop them. Sasaki had no such worries and made her initial moves lightning-fast, following a standard defensive opening to at least slightly offset the uncertainty the five-second limit would bring late-game.

Both were highly reluctant to actually engage the other's pieces, resorting to a quaint game of cat and mouse along their lines of defense.

Finally, either seeing an opportunity or simply fed up with waiting, Sasaki went on the offensive, pushing her army forward.

Tsuruya's pieces intercepted the attack, although for every piece she took, one of her own would be defeated. With their hands moving towards the same area on the board in a quick sequence, it seemed to be more of an elegant boxing match than a shougi game.

Sasaki emerged with the lead of a single pawn in the aftermath of their fierce exchange. But she knew initiating the attack had cost her optimal defense position, and a counter-attack was only to be expected.

Tsuruya hurried to oblige, dropping a captured silver general in the promotion zone on Sasaki's side of the field, leaving it like a single thorn sticking out of the wall of defenders. Sasaki unflinchingly placed her own silver general to the intruder's side where they couldn't attack each other, limiting the movement of her own rook, but freezing Tsuruya's attack in its tracks.

And then they went all out. Blows and parries went all across the board. No insult remained unavenged, except when the unending massacre moved onto another formation, breaking it apart, felling soldiers, leaving surviving pawns companionless.

This was not the way shougi was meant to be played. Not this mindless slaughter. Sasaki learned this anew with every tactically flawed move she was forced to make under the restraints of their crazy time limit. But it was far too late for misgivings, and she could only plunge forward. There, on Tsuruya's brow, was the slightest crease, the only visible sign of concentration. But if the perfect calm of her opponent was but a façade, Sasaki had nothing to fear.

The advantaged position she began with bore fruit.

Sasaki's pieces finally surrounded Tsuruya's jeweled general. Tsuruya hesitated for the first time during the match, but rather than escape, she placed another piece far forward, returning to the nearly forgotten threat she had made to Sasaki's rook in the beginning of their game.

Sasaki could escape with the piece. She knew Tsuruya would only pressure her further, building up a force deep in her fortress, though. And with her own royal general exposed and so close to victory, Sasaki decided to call the bluff.

She ignored the attack and took down the last of Tsuruya's defending golden generals. Tsuruya took the rook. Sasaki moved in to check her opponent.

With a sad smile on her face, Tsurya moved her jeweled general, not away from the attackers, but towards them. Sasaki blinked at the unexpected move.

With the imperfect attack capabilities of her pieces, Sasaki would not be able to checkmate Tsuruya in this new position immediately. But she swiftly retreated one of the attackers to compensate.

When Tsuruya returned the rook to the board not far from where she had previously captured it, Sasaki's first thought was _predictable_. Her second thought, striking her with enough force to make her eyes involuntary widen, was _disastrous_.

She had to protect her royal general, now in check. That she had predicted. But with the recent adjustment to her attack formation, it would cost her dearly. While she wasted a move to defend, the rook would move downward, capture one of her attacking pieces, promote and cut off Sasaki's offense in one fell swoop.

It was preposterous. Not because it was a good move. Tsuruya might have called herself an amateur, but she had been playing all too well throughout the whole game. Not because Sasaki failed to foresee its the full consequences. That was yet another failure she couldn't prevent in five seconds. It was preposterous, Sasaki knew, because the move had to be _prepared_.

Tsuruya would have to threaten the rook's position and predict Sasaki sealing it – acting _highly defensive_. And then she could allow Sasaki to attack, creep as close to the jeweled general as possible, manipulating the attackers' positions by moving it. Only then, by predicting the sacrifice of the rook, a _highly offensive _move, would it become possible to finalize the strategy.

Not even experienced professionals, and Sasaki had played with many, had ever toyed with her like that. Sure as hell not _handicapped_.

It hurt, but Sasaki's hand nevertheless shot forward at the four second mark, as if something within her couldn't accept the disgrace of giving up.

"You don't have to" Tsuruya offered, and this remark made her eyes, and now they appeared genuinely _tired_, meet Sasaki's rebellious gaze "Whatever you do, no matter how great your skill and determination, I'll take your royal general in no more than eighteen moves."

The board might've burned, so fast did Sasaki recoil from it. But it was the dispassionate finality in Tsuruya's voice, and not flames, that opened wounds.

"Humiliating" Sasaki muttered. But it was the only cry of emotional anguish she allowed herself before she scrunched her face, took a deep breath and allowed Logic to take over.

"Humbling" she corrected herself firmly.

And without further comment, Sasaki took to gazing intently at the board.

Tsuruya watched this with an increasingly guilty conscience. She let out a quiet sigh and leaned forward, supporting herself on their playing field with both hands.

"And since you've seen this much, Sasaki, believe me, and this is the only thing I will beg of you, believe me when I say that no matter what you do, no matter how hard you try, this world will die in no more than a week."

Tsuruya had to wait half a minute for an answer.

"End of the world, huh?" Sasaki mused, and leapt forward to move one of her pawns.

And now Tsuruya paused in disbelief.

"The best move in the worst situation" Tsuruya murmured "You saw eighteen moves ahead, Sasaki."

Sasaki shook off the praise without even trying.

"I'd bet everything I have you saw forty-some moves ahead when we played, Tsuruya" she responded, grimacing.

"I did that and more" Tsuruya allowed "but I cheated."

"Did you really?" Sasaki was entirely unconvinced.

Tsuruya pushed away from the board.

"There are about thirty possible opening moves, for you and your opponent, which makes for a mere nine hundred possible combinations for the first turn" Tsuruya offered "Even if this number increases exponentially with each additional turn we take into account and captured pieces may be returned to the board, shougi games nevertheless end in a finite number of moves, giving birth to a finite number of possibilities" she paused "And so, a being capable of discerning the sea of possibilities may achieve whatever result it desires. "

Despite spouting such gibberish, Tsuruya gave the impression of being entirely serious.

"With a power surpassing human comprehension, I foresaw our entire game, chose the path of action leading to my flashy victory and followed it like a script of a play until the very end."

"Did you really" Sasaki deadpanned "You're not making that up out of pity, are you?"

"Sure not. I might know the rules enough to play, but…"

Tsuruya cut off when she noticed Sasaki developing a nervous tick of her left eyebrow. Apparently the idea of losing to someone who "might know the rules enough to play, but…" didn't sit too well with her.

"Nyoro?" Tsuruya gave out, along with some nervous laughter.

Sasaki switched from seiza to sitting cross-legged, put her arms behind herself for support and raised her head to stare at the ceiling.

She heaved a heavy sigh.

"I believe you. End of the world, sea of possibilities, anything."

"You do?" Tsuruya couldn't help sounding relieved.

"I suppose I do. A few months back I had a queer group approach me with convincing arguments for me being a God-candidate and even better ones for the existence of time travel, extraterrestrial beings and superpowers. I'll feel better believing you, I think. And you do give off a similar feeling to them."

"Women's intuition?" Tsuruya sounded disappointed "I thought you were more discriminating."

Sasaki didn't seem bothered by Tsuruya's tone.

"Admittedly, the concept of a "feel" applicable to every person is of a dubious nature" Sasaki allowed "It would be more precise to consider it in terms of an ability of absolute influence upon targets – charisma, a constant quality which affects evaluative judgment – aura, or a combination of both. In terms of the first, I measured your actions and words which were supposed to affect me. In what way do they reveal your own persona and intentions, to what extent were they calculated or honest and how much did I allow them to affect me. As for the second, I observed your reactions to stimuli you had not anticipated and the degree of change in your behavior after it was confronted with my own. The conclusions I drew from both these trials allowed me to judge your "feel" and so I decided on trusting you."

Tsuruya had adopted a gesture of surrender halfway through the discourse, her hands in the air and shaking lightly.

"I take it back. You were just slyly hiding your true colors." she accused, not sounding bothered at all.

Sasaki shrugged her shoulders humorously.

"Kyon once advised me not to scare people away by being myself too much" she smirked "so I've been holding back."

"Kyon? So even you don't use his real name?" Tsuruya asked.

"He has one?" Sasaki shot back.

They both smiled.

"But even had I not believed you" Sasaki returned to her usual serious tone "would you not have manipulated the possibilities of our conservation until I did?"

Tsuruya put on a pained expression, as if she had been expecting the question, but had hoped she wouldn't have to answer it.

"I have nothing but my word for it, but I wouldn't be able to" Tsuruya admitted "That game alone took a lot out of me, even if I don't look like it. And with free will being a jerk, human conversations are infinitely more complex than board games. I don't think I'd like to have a go at controlling them just yet."

Sasaki nodded, seemingly satisfied.

"And so," she spoke up again "maybe you should elaborate on that end of the world of yours. And how it relates to you, Suzumiya Haruhi, me and my" Sasaki wondered briefly whether using the name Kyouko had made up was entirely appropriate "_Sasaki-dan"._

It was sad but inevitable, Tsuruya knew, that they would eventually breach this topic, the true purpose of her visit.

"Suzumiya Haruhi will be used to bring about the destruction of the world."

Even as she said that, Tsuruya grimaced at the sobering thought.

"Conversely, I will be the one goading her into doing it."

Sasaki had no visible reaction to this news. Tsuruya, on her part, only now realized the horrible difference between simply knowing the fact and stating it out loud.

"As for your companions… it would suffice if they just vanished, but they'll help in neutralizing the factions surrounding Suzumiya Haruhi in the process."

Tsuruya cleared her throat, avoiding looking at Sasaki.

"And, Sasaki, I'd like you to… die for me."

Late into the evening, the quiet apartment was filled with hysteric laughter. And the sound which should have been carefree slowly grew forced and grating, as if coming from the depths of insanity.

Tsuruya stopped laughing only with obvious effort, chocking back further bursts.

"Sorry, Sasaki. That was a really bad joke. No idea where it came from." Tsuruya chattered, panicky, pushing herself off the floor and preparing to stand.

Sasaki wasn't impressed.

"No" she barked.

Tsuruya faltered, chuckling weakly and waving her hands apologetically.

"I didn't intend to say that, really-sa. Don't make anything of it."

But Sasaki left no time for silence to set in.

"Will I be any less screwed if you run away now, Tsuruya?"

If Tsuruya's pained, horrified expression was any indication, she wouldn't be.

And so the long-haired girl slumped, covered her face with her hand and spoke in this manner. Sasaki listened well, never letting a word slip.

"The one dealing the cards is the Macrospatial Quantum Cosmic Existence. For you, it'd be best to think of those fellows as Suou Kuyou's employers. And for me" Tsuruya raised her free hand to point at her heart "they are the ultimate parasite."

Tsuruya's tone changed slightly as she slipped into the well-rehearsed recital of the plan.

"The time travelers will be eliminated first. Asahina Mikuru through me, and the man you know as Fujiwara through Suou. They will both be infected with a fifth-dimensional vector. Because a time traveler's existence relies on a pre-established chain of events, erasing them through a change in the _possibilities _within the space-time continuum is child's play. At least for those five-dimensional fellows."

"At the chosen time, both of them will simply blink out of existence. But the change in possibility will disguise itself as a natural occurrence, and inevitably, the two time traveler factions will suspect each other of breaking the ultimate taboo: changing a pre-destined event. This will likely result in the first and last Time War. Almost certainly, the damage dealt to the fabric of time as a result would be enough to cause the end of the world by itself. However, the collapse of time would have to start in the future which, come next week, will have lost the chance of ever happening. This is the absolute advantage a five-dimensional being holds over those capable of four-dimensional travel."

"The Integrated Data Thought Entity, the fellows' counterpart, is likely to notice this and recognize it for what it is. And therefore they will have to be dealt with next. A rogue agent of the Entity will assist those fellows in uploading a junk data attack. Those fellows currently lack the sophistication to significantly hurt the Entity in this way, but the Entity does not value Suzumiya Haruhi over its own safety, and is likely to devote most of its power to analyzing the junk data completely. Suou Kuyou will directly confront any interfaces not taken up with this task. The curtains will close before the Entity feels secure enough to make its move."

"And lastly, the esper factions. I will approach one member of the Organization under the pretense of confirming my family's interests. Whoever it is, those fellows will enslave them completely, allowing for the transfer of some power between Suzumiya Haruhi and you. We expect your espers to jump on this opportunity to establish you as the true God… and whatever the factions do to each other afterwards is entirely inconsequential to those fellows."

Tsuruya removed the hand from her face and started looking at a wall in the general direction of Sasaki, not halting in her speech.

"Since when they first noticed her, those fellows wished to use Suzumiya Haruhi for their own purposes. But they cannot communicate with humans directly – they've been trying for months and all their subjects died in the process. They couldn't risk destroying Suzumiya, divinity in a human's shell, before getting what they wanted. And so, they sought a vessel acquainted with supernatural powers, capable of holding them. Until through sheer coincidence and some really bad luck, they stumbled on me."

In Sasaki's first outward response to the story, she allowed her brows to furrow.

"In other words," Tsuruya concluded "the being you are speaking with now is neither the human known as Tsuruya nor the Macrospatial Quantum Cosmic Existence, but a mixture of both."

Now Sasaki's frown grew, and her answer was cold and guarded.

"Is that so?"

Tsuruya's depressed expression almost switched into a smile, giving Sasaki the impression her sudden distrust brought the other girl satisfaction, or at least some form of reassurance.

"Indeed" Tsuruya confirmed "However, what consciousness rules over this body is another matter altogether. At this moment, those fellows cannot overrule my awareness for more than twenty-one consecutive hours, at which point I regain power over myself fully for three to four hours, like now. As we are one, we cannot hurt each other even while the other side remains dormant. As the aura of possibility originally belonged to those fellows, I have only little access to their powers. But as the mind of this body originally belonged to me, they cannot access my memories, and will therefore never become aware of me being here or the words we exchanged."

Tsuruya locked eyes with Sasaki.

"I'm telling you this because you need to realize how great a risk those fellows are taking, and how great the desire behind this foolishness must be. If you realize that, you will also understand that they will stop at nothing to get what they want."

She broke eye contact to resume staring at the wall.

"Their ultimate objective is to completely enslave the mind and powers of Suzumiya Haruhi. A being aware of the infinity of possibilities getting its hands on powers of infinite potential… I'm sure you can imagine the consequences yourself – a true self-aware God, ready to erase as all at the drop of a hat."

Finally, sensing another oncoming pause, Sasaki decided to cut to the chase.

"How does my death factor into all of this?"

"For the plan to succeed, three conditions must be met" Tsuruya recapped, stalling for time "All factions powerful enough to interfere must be prevented from taking action. The Existence must act through a human to enthrall another human's mind. Arrangements for those two you already know."

She clenched her fist.

"Lastly, Suzumiya Haruhi's powers must be fully or nearly fully awake at the moment she is enslaved. And your death will allow for fulfilling this condition. In a few days, those fellows, no, _**I**_ will come to you again and perform the procedure planned for Suzumiya."

She had gone over this part so many times, it was all ready in her head, why, why did the words not want to come out!?

"All your… emotions… wants and needs… fears… beliefs… everything will be taken away, _mutilated_, **violated**. And then they will be returned, rehashed, a grotesque caricature, merely to begin the process anew, until, finally, your self-awareness is stifled, so oppressed by what _could be_ that you forget _what is_."

And when the words did come out, Tsuruya never noticed herself switching from what was supposed to be a stoic description into a shaky remembrance of the night on which she had died for the first time.

"And once you've served as a guinea pig for the process and become a living doll" Tsuruya almost whispered "they will send you against Suzumiya. In a life-or-death situation, the destabilized powers of Suzumiya Haruhi will surface and she will certainly act in self-defense. This opportunity will also be used to measure the limits of Suzumiya's power, but there is no doubt that no human being, no matter how powerful, can kill her. Whatever is left of your existence will end on that day."

Half-stunned trying to process what she had learned, half-absorbed by the disheartening display of the shaking girl before her, Sasaki was not entirely aware what she was doing as she leaned forward, looking for some way to comfort her guest.

Tsuruya leapt forward madly, smashed her hands on the shougi board, sent all the pieces flying.

"**Like hell that would happen!"**

Sasaki jumped back in fright as the girl before seemed to transform every bit of uncertainty within her into fuel for her screams.

"Those fellows know nothing! Oppose them, and they cannot have you! Spit in their face like I had! The spark of life in your eyes, it is so obvious, they cannot even comprehend! If not your life, then at least dignity is yours to keep until the end!"

Shouting all this with her full might, Tsuruya went red in the face. But not a second passed after her last word before she deflated again, embracing herself with her arms, touching her knees with her chin, seemingly half her previous size.

"But still… I… I want you to give up."

Sasaki watched in mute bewilderment and worry as Tsuruya trembled.

"I want to believe a mind like yours can never be completely broken. And if even a sliver of that beautiful will remains when the time comes, the small things you can do, the things you can say to that girl to bring us one step closer to salvation! I think about it all, and then I truly want you to give up everything, to writhe in the ultimate anguish, for the sake of me and my gamble."

And, in the smallest of voices,

"If air passes through these lungs, and my lips form that horrible plea… Sasaki, will I be the most wretched of all?"

Neither girl was composed enough to measure how much time passed before Sasaki replied.

"If you want to be selfish and do end up asking for it, then allow me to be selfish too."

Tsuruya looked up at her dejectedly.

"I will do whatever you want me to, Tsuruya… if you tell me exactly how heavy the burden of a monster's soul is."

Tsuruya started, she wanted to apologize, take her words back. But she saw Sasaki's face – so puzzling, bright, pained, yet lacking in anger and full of **pity**.

And she understood the words asked not about Sasaki's fate, but Tsuruya herself.

Tsuruya didn't like being picky, which was probably why she never admitted, even to herself, how much she disliked salt. It was everywhere, in bread, in pasta, in soups, sneaking up on you, and then the taste fills your mouth as you choke, but still more comes with the wild rivulets, and you can only follow, so very powerless, the itchy trails of each salty, salty tear.

Tsuruya didn't know when it happened. Neither did Sasaki, but there she was, embracing the crying girl and striking her hair comfortingly.

How mundane it had seemed, the quiet evening which lead to it all.

"My father will be late, right?" Sasaki asked.

Tsuruya nodded weakly, admitting to having it arranged.

"And you should have some two hours left."

Another weak nod.

"Let me get us glasses. We'll drink for future prospects, or something" Sasaki laughed, although her own eyes were getting watery "And you will tell me everything."

Tsuruya returned the embrace and, even minutes later, kept on crying and nodding.

* * *

**AN:** It was hard to write this chapter, after the victorious Tsuruya in Elusive Dominion and hopeful Tsuruya in Architecture, we now see an entirely different image. The responsibility is great, and it scares her. But the chaos can no longer be stopped. We are at the halfway point of this story, what waits ahead? Only time will tell.

**Preview:**

_In the end, he never asked her why it was snow of all things she liked so much. And now, there would be many more things he would never be able to ask about. _

_He couldn't embrace her, she was near and far away._

_He couldn't stay to say goodbye. _

_Haruhi was waiting._

See you next time!


	4. Brilliance lost

**Last chapter**: Inevitable tragedy brings about the alliance of two great souls. But after all is said and done, what, and at what cost, could they achieve? And did they really intend for the world they knew to slowly fall apart?

* * *

Kyon moved at a steady trot.

Breath in then breath out. He had done that a thousand times during physical education classes, but never before had it come to him so naturally. Arms swinging, legs bouncing off the ground, his body, usually full of complaints, had now caught second wind and led him obediently ever forward. And just as this busied the fine machinery of his organism, the repeated motions set his mind free.

Suzumiya Haruhi was God. Or the potential of evolution. Or a time distortion phenomenon. It didn't really matter which one. He had told her, and she had believed.

Air was air. Ground was ground. Up was up and down was down, ten-headed alien monsters did not appear, people didn't change into iridescent jelly, the world did not end – after all the wishy-washy lecturing, hypothesizing, nagging and worrying nothing changed just because Haruhi **knew**.

If that thought was not liberating – like a two and a half tone boulder being taken off his aching back, nothing in this world could be. Even if it all came down to trusting a normal girl to be a normal girl.

Kyon wasn't stupid or blind. He had noticed the sky being replaced by an inferno – an image like the depths of golden-brown tea, when you look too hungrily into them, lost in your thoughts. He didn't forget Itsuki was gone. And he knew Haruhi could be a normal girl and more at the same time.

He had just long ago resolved to retain his sanity in spite of whatever might happen. Everything so that he may take responsibility for the club he had helped create and the girl who had believed in the promise of John Smith.

Ready as he was for anything, it did little to surprise him when the cell phone he had turned off not ten minutes ago started vibrating in his pocket.

He didn't even slow down as he took the device out and read the words flashing weakly on the display.

_Bench. Yuki N. _

**­**

**Chapter 4**

**Brilliance lost between the dusk of Winter and the dawn of Spring**

When it came to benches, only one had played an outstanding role in his life. It was the one where he had listened to Mikuru's confession of being a time traveler, and thus the first time he allowed himself to think the existence of supernatural powers around him could be more than an elaborate joke.

But, to his knowledge, Nagato wasn't aware of that. And the bench she would most certainly have in mind was a different one altogether. After all, there was the bench where she had waited for him, a whole day when didn't show up, and where they had met out of school for the first time.

He didn't need to think twice about heading there His earlier running was entirely purposeless – he had planned on going to school, hoping to find a message from one of the SOS-dan's members waiting for him there, telling him what to do in this crazy situation.

And now the last bastion of order in his life was within his sight.

He even slowed down to savor the feeling.

The diminutive figure sat at the bench, stoic as ever, with an opened book in her lap. He guessed she had had enough time to read through most of it before he got there, with her considerable reading speed and his mediocre running speed. There was a limit to what adrenaline could do for you, he learned.

"Hey! Nagato!" he yelled with a small distance still separating them. His desire for her attention had won over the wish for the moment to last.

Nagato, as always, seemed initially to ignore him, giving no immediate response. But after a full three seconds, she closed her book, putting an envelope into it as a bookmark. She raised her face towards Kyon, her eyes like orbs of quicksilver burning from within.

Breathing heavily but with a relieved smile on his face, Kyon made it to the bench. His spirits lifted at seeing at least one of his friends in one piece, and he reached out to her.

"Do not touch me."

Kyon froze. There was no one around but them. No matter how much he wished for it, there was no one but Nagato who could have whispered the order.

"It is imperative for the continued functionality of this corporeal frame that you do not touch me."

His breathing had been heavy before and now, now it was shallow and panicked.

"Why?"

And it was as if he was asking for mercy.

"The integrants of this form are not naturally a stable combination," Nagato explained emotionlessly "With my rudimentary data manipulation functions damaged, I cannot sustain this body. Contact with moving air particles has already proved detrimental. It is likely I cannot survive touching objects of higher density."

If Kyon's expression said anything, it was that he was doing his utmost not to believe her.

Unblinkingly, Nagato raised one of her hands in front of her face. Where she had touched the pages of her book to flip them, silvery traces had appeared, and her hand seemed to be leaking glittering dust.

Kyon closed his eyes. Even if he couldn't convince himself it wasn't real, he didn't want to see it.

He had always been internally torn between two visions of Nagato: the invincible alien magician, and a fragile girl who would topple over should a stronger wind blow. But today was the only time when, by her own words, the latter was indeed true.

"What… What can I do to help?"

But if it were that easy, she would have already told him.

"Can't the Entity do something!?"

If she remained cold, he possessed enough fire for both of them.

"The integrated Data Thought Entity is currently under attack and acknowledges no incoming transmissions. However, the Entity's ability to fix this kind of structural deformation is questionable at best."

He was growing angry. And since he was already too angry at himself, the feeling spilled over and he mysteriously became angry at her.

"So, I should just accept it?"

Words turned ideas into reality, fear into pain.

"Accept... that you are gone!?"

Her expression did not change.

"The issue of my survival is not paramount to the acceptability of current events."

But she gave him time for no retort.

"Koizumi Itsuki is now deceased."

He knew that all too well.

"Asahina Mikuru was never existent. You retain memory of her interactions with you only because of the long-term effect of the nullifying space established within the clubroom."

That he would be better of not knowing.

"Is acceptance of either of those facts within your capability?"

Kyon thought he understood her. The minute changes in her expression. Her steadily evolving character, which nevertheless remained genuinely hers. But he never thought it worked In reverse. Nagato was asking the question with full confidence, because she already knew his answer.

And he was reduced to looking at her despairingly, waiting for any advice she may offer.

"Suzumiya Haruhi has the power to reverse any event she wishes."

He caught the bait.

"I told her! She believed me!" he pointed at the fiery sky "Why didn't it stop? She doesn't want it to happen, right?"

Nagato blinked.

"Suzumiya Haruhi's powers are being limited. While no changes may occur in regards to the nature of her power, the possibilities of what action she may take are being sealed off. Suou Kuyou demonstrated a reverse possibility algorithm to create the opposite of possible existence – void. It is prudent to assume that is the truth behind the Canopy Domain's abilities – probability and possibility manipulation, the power to affect the fifth dimension, a match even for Suzumiya Haruhi."

Nagato didn't wait for him to confirm he understood.

"However, that a being this powerful risks confrontation with Suzumiya Haruhi to achieve its goals, rather than using more clandestine methods, proves that its true objective is Suzumiya Haruhi herself."

And Kyon wasn't surprised.

"It attacked Haruhi? What happened there?"

Nagato wouldn't answer his question directly.

"Suzumiya Haruhi faces no risk in the short term. Nevertheless, confrontation between her and the Canopy Domain is inevitable. You must ascertain she is willing to fight back when the time comes, or the possibility of our revival will be lost."

She took the envelope out of her book and handed it to kyon.

"This program contains recorded data of recent and old events, to be viewed directly by the mind of the opener. Do not use it prematurely, and it will aid you in your task."

"He took the envelope, but his hand remained close to hers for one more magical second.

"You'll lose your bookmark," he joked weakly.

"I no longer require it," Nagato deadpanned.

Their arms retreated.

"So… this is goodbye?"

He waited for her answer like he would for his own sentence.

The silence stretched.

"It remains my wish to go to the library with you."

And then she lowered her head back to her book.

He turned and ran. Ran as fast as he could to leave her behind.

Nagato remained sitting, staring endlessly at the same page.

She had no reaction to the arms encircling her from behind and the voice whispering directly into her ear.

"I'm sorry. He should have been the last one to embrace you."

Nagato's body started to collapse due to the physical contact, but she didn't seem bothered.

"It is irrelevant. There will still be time."

**XXX**

Kyon didn't know where to find Haruhi – it was a matter of getting away from Nagato more than getting to anyone else.

Now he learned he didn't need to know.

Behind him was the city.

Before him was only open space.

And to his left and right were buildings half-open, ending midway, and he could see within some of them from where he stood. A single step, and he was standing within a shallow hole.

The concrete simply _ended_ at that point, like the buildings did. As if a whimsical god had removed everything within a certain perimeter. Kyon suspected that was indeed the case.

And if so, his goal awaited him in the center of the empty circle.

His shoes disturbed the sandy surface, tracing virgin trails. Even the air here was different, he noted absently. It smelled sweet, and filled his mouth with a subtle sugar-like taste whenever he opened it to breathe in.

His mind went to the people and things which had been there before. What had happened to them? Were they in a different world, a different time? Or were they just gone and that was all there was to it? But something so simple didn't seem like the usual Haruhi.

He tripped and barely regained his balance. It was enough motivation for him to regain his focus on the present, and he soon saw the culprit behind his near-fall. Sticking out of the ground was a thin spike, reaching halfway to his knee. Ouch, he thought. Falling on that would hurt, and more.

What was the thing doing there? But than he turned around and the thought died a violent death.

They were everywhere ahead of him. Wherever he looked, a sea of innumerable spikes protruding from the ground at different angles.

They were thin – that was the only explanation he could come up with for why he hadn't seen them earlier, from the distance. But now he couldn't tear his eyes away from them. At first glance, they were strewn around randomly, some closer to and some further away from others. On second glance, though, there was a sense of purpose to their positioning, and Kyon was hard pressed to find space between them where a person could fall without being impaled.

That worried him, somehow. And it was not worry for his own well-being. He wouldn't dare run and risk his life, but he still increased his pace.

Far away, he saw a dot.

As he got close enough to make out the dot's details, his steps among the hedgehog soil became still more daring.

With all the uncertainty that he had gathered within him as he realized his companions were disappearing, Kyon approached the back of Suzumiya Haruhi, the last hope of this world.

For what she was, the kneeling, hunched over girl looked all too frail, and he was happy he couldn't see her face from where he stood.

"Ha-" enough to alert her to his presence but not address her properly. Not because he had planned on pausing for dramatic effect but because his wandering eyes looked past Haruhi and saw what they shouldn't have.

More like a rag doll than a person, indeed, a voodoo doll with all the spikes stuck in, small rivers of blood running down her arms and legs, falling to the ground and coloring the dry soil red. But if anything could convince him it was only some wicked installation, it was the blissful smile on her pale face.

Sasaki.

_The probability of alien existence is not negligible only because of the size of the universe allowing it to include any possibility_ Sasaki. _Belief in the supernatural can be considered childish but is as viable a method of maintaining moral as anything else_ Sasaki. _Would thinking it was gods, and not your actions and the world functioning exactly as it should, that brought about friendship make it any more beautiful?_ Sasaki.

**Sasaki.**

Mikuru had known the future, and did not warn him. **Why?**

Koizumi had known when they talked and didn't tell him. **Why?**

Nagato should have known and she sent him off without saying anything. **Why?**

**Haruhi.**

She was right in front of him. His fists clenched, he was already striking her – in his mind. He had raised his fist at her once already, and had he been half as justified back then as he was now? This time it was no joke, Sasaki wouldn't be waking up with a hangover and a little less dignity because she wouldn't be waking up **at all.**

He made an angry step forward, the sand rustled under his feet and Haruhi let out half a gurgle, half a squeak, like a drowning animal trying to call for help.

That was what the entirety of his rage amounted to – a single step. Unbidden came the thoughts of Mikuru not even knowing of her own terrible fate, Itsuki not having the time to abandon his job for ‑­his true self and Nagato giving up on both her own survival and whatever was left of the world as a whole.

And as for Haruhi, she was the only true victim - a normal high school girl thrown into this horrid maze of truth and delusion without even the time to try to understand what was happening.

"Haruhi."

But by then the girl herself had regained the ability to speak in human tongue.

"…don't…come…near…"

Kyon remembered Nagato telling him something similar not half an hour before. Only the ice in Nagato's words had pushed him away, while Haruhi's weak voice merely drew him closer.

"I… did this to her… There was light, blood… I…" she seemed to swallow "If you come closer, you'll disappear too! It's all my fault!"

Either he didn't believe that or didn't care. He wrapped his arms around her and held her tightly as she struggled to break free – but there was no strength left in her body.

"It was John Smith's fault, for not telling you everything he should have four years ago."

Haruhi stopped her struggle, but her body and voice were still trembling.

"I wanted everything gone: the noise, the blood, the people, the whole place. And in a blink it all disappeared, everything except **her**."

Kyon didn't want to listen, but he didn't show it – Haruhi had to let it out.

"She said that reality vanishing was against logic, and that logic had protected her… I was angry, afraid… and I wished for her to die."

She spoke no more, but the silence was filled in by her sobbing.

"Haruhi."

He turned her around and for the first time saw her face – terrified and broken with anguish. But then again, how much different did his face look?

"The horrible things that happened can be fixed. Take the letter in my pocket, Haruhi. Learn who took away our happiness… and let's get it back."

Her Frightened eyes only widened.

"For Itsuki, Mikuru, Yuki," Kyon insisted.

She nodded.

"For John Smith" he went on, even as Haruhi reached for the envelope "and for us."

Haruhi's fingers touched the white paper for a split-second, and then she fell limp in his arms.

* * *

**Preview**: _Despite the effort, her hands remained deathly cold. _

_That, like everything else, was no longer of use._


	5. Yet Another Way of Many

**AN: **Haruhi's outfit is the one seen in the opening of the anime, but never used within the series itself. Just a tidbit.

**Last chapter: **Exchanging words with a mysterious figure, Yuki passes away. At the same time, Haruhi's gambit is finished, and the inevitable confrontation draws close.

* * *

"_Citizens of the United States of America, I speak to you In this time of great worry. I speak to you to assure you: the strength you poured into making this country what it is today will now be returned. No resources and no effort shall be spared to guarantee your safety."_

Kyon watched the broadcast dejectedly from the dirty sofa. Not like he had anything better to do, really. He only wished his English comprehension skills were a notch better. The foreign stations were choke-full of meaningless sesquipedalians and he watched them only because all the Japanese channels were already dead.

"_We confirm that the weather phenomenon has just reached the West Coast. Provisions and shelter for the citizens are already being prepared." _

He hadn't given much thought to why he had met no normal people on the streets ever since his talk with Koizumi Itsuki. In retrospect, he understood everyone had fled from the city – it was here that all the weird stuff started happening. When his family called, telling him to come back home and prepare to evacuate, he had made up a lie that all students were to hide in the school basement and couldn't leave it. In truth, he had known from the start it was no normal typhoon.

"_It is true that the reaction originated in central Japan. However, there is currently no reason to suspect that it is any specific action undertaken by the Japanese that is to blame for the occurrence. We hope to extend a helping hand to any Japanese survivors, and are constantly trying to establish contact with any remaining members of the Japanese government."_

But as fate would have it, the city was the eye of the storm, and the only safe place on the whole Japanese Islands.

"Remaining members of the government, huh?" Kyon muttered to himself.

While he was taking advantage of a recently-abandoned apartment, his compatriots were all facing mortal danger and fighting for their lives. That was one unhappy thought, but he was too tired to properly sympathize.

Well, there was still his own family. Evan that monster of a little sister…

He took out Koizumi's cell phone. The thing never had problems with signal. It could establish a connection with anything that had a speaker.

"_Hi, Mom. I'm still in the middle of all that. No, don't worry. It doesn't matter either way. If the super-aliens win, we're all doomed. If the superhuman high school girl on our side wins, she'll fix everything in no time at all, you won't even remember the scary stuff happening." _

Nah, that wouldn't go over well.

His thoughts went to Haruhi. She would be _there_ already, wherever or whatever _there_ was. Still, he had the nagging feeling there was still something he had to tell her.

Or maybe he was just feeling restless.

The TV went on spouting blasted English.

Kyon felt the irresistible need to go outside.

**Chapter 5**

**Yet Another Way of Many**

"It doesn't fit, does it?"

He had no idea, and told Haruhi likewise.

"Use. Your. Brain. Fits? Fits not?"

Haruhi's haughty demands served little purpose other than to make him squirm, anyway. She was already discarding the outfit in question and _bringing about_ another one.

Haruhi, set loose on an abandoned and defenseless shopping district. Not that she actually needed to help herself to the wares on display. It was a matter of 'inspiration'. And of a mirror, too.

"Hand me the hairbrush over there, Kyon."

'Over there' was on the other side of the shop window, and the door was most certainly closed. Meaning that the only way he could obtain the requested item would be through an act of vandalism. No, he didn't think too highly of the idea.

Haruhi glared daggers first at him, and then at the shop window. Unlike Kyon, the glass couldn't survive the pressure. With a sad clatter, the window shattered into a thousand small pieces.

Kyon sighed at Haruhi's antics and reached for the hairbrush, passing it over to her in a docile enough manner. Haruhi humphed, took the accessory and gave the shattered glass one more look. The window was all too happy to fix itself. Or rather, it was fixed the moment she wished for it to be.

Since bewilderment could only keep him silent for so long, Kyon decided it was time for a little interrogation.

"So, what was in that letter?"

Nagato really could have made the thing a multiple-use item and saved him the trouble of getting the info out of Haruhi. Was this her idea of a final joke?

"In the letter? Only everything," but it actually seemed he had hit the right button and Haruhi had wanted to talk about it, and let her dissatisfaction be known, all along "Even Yuki brushing her teeth, the one time she went about it like normal people do."

At least he knew why the interface didn't want him seeing all that. Unless he was giving himself too much credit and she wouldn't care.

"Besides what seemed like every second of her life, there was every report Itsuki-kun's Organization ever wrote and four year's worth of inter-time communication logs," Haruhi brushed her hair so forcefully, Kyon had to wonder if she wasn't hurting herself "A lot of contradictory stuff."

Haruhi nodded at her reflection in the mirror. In the end, she had settled for a long black leather jacket, a yellow tank top and the miniskirt of their high school uniform. There was a red band around her arm with the words _Supreme Being (tentative)_ written on it.

Kyon didn't consider the outfit dazzling, but neither did he see the reason for Haruhi dressing up at all. Other than to escape the cold, of course. Evening had come, and along with it reason-defying subzero temperatures.

"But the bottom line is: my own club has been making a fool out of me for a whole year, if not four years!"

So she was pissed. Not that there was any point denying the true accusation.

"And that club, which was supposed to save the world by overloading it with fun in my name, royally screwed up, leaving their leader alone to clean up the mess!"

Kyon didn't know whether to feel happy or indignant about Haruhi ignoring the fact he was another remaining club member who could help resolve the issue. Or maybe she deemed whatever contribution he could make negligible, but would still drag him around? He should probably be more worried about her likening world-saving to cleaning duty, anyway.

At this moment, one of the rust-like clouds in the sky covered up the sun and plunged them into darkness. Haruhi snapped her head upwards and glared at the thing as if it was the culprit behind the deaths of her friends. The cloud dispersed immediately, but it was back a second later as if nothing had happened.

"The possibility that I _wouldn't_ have done that, right?" Haruhi spat.

Kyon was used to feeling lost when it came to all the bizarre phenomena happening around him. But he also had to wonder if there was more to Haruhi's anger than she was willing to tell.

"What now, Haruhi? Are we going to actually do something, or do you just use a healthy dose of your new bogus magic to fix things?"

Haruhi waved her hand dismissively to show him what she thought about his view on her 'bogus magic'.

"There are five billion seven hundred million sixty-five thousand eight kindred twenty nine living people in this world, Kyon."

The number was smaller than what he recalled hearing during his geography lessons, but he didn't really want to know the reason behind that.

"But I can properly feel one person less than that. I'd assume that whoever is shielding themselves from my power has a reason for doing that. As in, they are the bad guy." Haruhi went on "For all their effort, with the process of elimination and a bit of bogus magic, it's easy to find out who and where they are."

Kyon looked at her blankly.

"So easy? Where's the fine print?"

"So easy."

Haruhi threw the hairbrush at him.

"I'm going."

"And not dragging me with you?"

Not that he secretly wanted to tag along, or anything. He was just making sure.

Haruhi turned to him with a strange look in her eyes.

"If I didn't have someone waiting for my return, I'd go crazy. After I'm done killing Tsuruya-san, that is."

Kyon watched her disappear in a flash of light.

The meaning of her words registered a second too late.

**XXX**

Tsuruya clapped her hands once, twice and finally thrice, blowing on the insides of her palms after each completed motion.

It wasn't much use and she soon sought retreat in the warm pockets of her coat. The night was unusually cold, after all. Far too cold for pleasurable stargazing at the school rooftop, anyway.

She almost felt relieved hearing the hurried footsteps become louder and louder still. It was like waiting for the pinprick of a needle, but relishing in the knowledge that the experience would soon be over.

Bang!

The rooftop door smashed open as if it had been a typhoon, rather than a schoolgirl, tearing it open. It was adequate, in a sense – how else should sound a door opened by God?

Tsuruya gazed upon the oddly dark town beneath her. Wandering up that slope each day – she would never have complained, no, but to never take advantage of it, to wait until such a day to admire her own town from the rooftop of her own school…

Feeble thoughts were an excuse for not turning around and facing the tangible wrath of the supreme being directly.

"**Tsuruya-san!**"

The yell itself snapped her head to the side. She was sure of this – she wouldn't have willed it to move herself.

It was so much for the easy way out, either way. It took her all not to make eye contact, she couldn't find it in herself to return to her previous stance.

"Haru-nyan. What brings you here?"

How subtle. The urge to lsap herself on the forehead was nearly overwhelming.

Haruhi could try and help her, though, instead of keeping silent. Like: "the end of the world as you know it" – it sounded dramatic, even, and would make for a Hollywood-esque climax scene.Or something more on mark: "anger", "revenge", "hatred".

No such luck.

"You know-sa…"

"Unforgivable!"

Tsuruya turned around and faced Haruhi fully, surprised.

"Your behavior was to my great dissatisfaction, Tsuruya-san! I would hate to revoke your honorary membership, but it is my duty as the Commander to keep the SOS-dan in top form – that means no member may slack off or break rules!"

Surprised, because of all things, she did not expect herself to be scolded in such a mundane fashion as this.

"A penalty is needed! You'll pay for lunch and apologize to everybody once this is over, understood, Tsuruya-san?"

Tsuruya burst out laughing.

Expecting the worst, being well-prepared to manage it – it all had its merits. Like when it all lead to the euphoric feeling of relief.

"_Apologize to everybody once this is over, heh?"_

"I megas underestimated you, Haru-nyan. That I did," and it felt good to admit it "I thought that accepting one's godhood would be too much even for you, that you would come here angry at me and terrified of yourself…"

She halted. And then she decided there was nothing to wait for.

"There were many who opposed you, but do not hold it against them. There were many gods with their own wishes – and each needed worshippers. Hate not Sasaki-chan, because she gave her life for your awakening. Don't begrudge the deaths of Mikuru and Koizumi-kun. They were simply necessary. And now that you know everything, possibly even temporary. Even Yuki-chi, at my own hands… but you are here, so you must know."

Haruhi nodded firmly and reached into her coat pocket to take out a carefully folded letter.

"Yuki said delivering this would be the last thing she could do. And she wrote many things about you."

Tsuruya chuckled.

"I won't ask you for the contents, Haru-nyan. After all, this is Yuki-chi we are talking about – if that girl ever wrote a lie I would take it for truth any time of the day."

"So," Haruhi demanded "everything since that snow mountain incident was a lie?"

"I told you my family would usually go there for vacation," Tsuruya responded easily "when I never had enough of a close family to back this claim up, right?"

Haruhi nodded in agreement and pocketed the letter. Suddenly, Tsuruya's smile turned maniacal, and she twisted away from Haruhi to hide it.

"So now what, Haru-nyan? So now what, with the very existence of the world struggling to remain, with all of them dead…"

Tsuruya trailed off, and Haruhi, resolute, seemed to compensate for this.

"Surrender. And let me set things straight. Not as a god, but as your friend. They have their own agendas: time travelers, espers, aliens… I don't care about them. I am the Commander of the SOS-dan, the well-being of my friends is my only priority. The world may be as boring as it wants to be, but together we can make it fun! Notice this! I want you to be a part of this happiness!"

It was something akin to a shiver that shook Tsuruya's body. She was moved. No, she wouldn't deny that. But it was too late. Such a pity it was. Everything.

"Sa," she began eloquently "You are the same Haruhi, the very same one I've met so long ago-sa. But you've grown so much I barely recognize you. Mysterious, that. No, nyoro?"

She unbuttoned her coat and let it fall to the ground. It was a cold night indeed, but her body was already far colder and she could feel no chill. It wasn't much use, that coat.

"Thank you, Haru-nyan. For considering me a friend when they no longer can. But relieving friends of their existence is too much a sin for a fellow human to forgive…"

Haruhi's stare was unyielding.

"I know-sa. You might be more than a fellow human. But that's a bit beside the point."

Pause.

"You're right, it's not that that bothers me. This is too elaborate to be a chance result of sad circumstances. I knew all the consequences of my actions as I performed them – I wouldn't do a single thing I thought unforgivable, whatever that makes me look like. Rather, the blood staining my hands is an inconsequential variable in the equation leading towards the grand finale."

Tsuruya almost felt bad saying all this. But the fact remained Haruhi's resolve was far beyond what she had anticipated, and she had no choice but to score low blows.

But no. Even now, Haruhi would not make it easy for her.

"Name it, Tsuruya-san. Tell me what world you want and I'll make it so. I'll give you flying pink elephants and yoghurt flavored pizza. This is our ending. Let's write it the way we want."

Tsuruya heaved a heavy, tired sigh.

"You truly are one of a kind, Haru-nyan."

The night stars twinkled mischievously above them.

"But the beauty of your powers lies in them being a dream. You were always pure, changing things unconsciously, based not on what you wanted to change but on what the final effect was supposed to be. You never needed comprehension to guide your power."

Tsuruya coughed and cleared her throat. But no, she hadn't caught a cold. Nothing so mundane.

"You never believed in sliders, Haru-nyan, because you could never understand dimensions. Those fellows confirmed this time and time again – and only when they became certain you couldn't reach them did they begin to manifest in humans."

Haruhi's glare was mortifying.

"What are you talking about?" she demanded. Tsuruya complied.

"You know how Yuki-chi worked under the Entity. Humanoid interfaces were needed to emulate messages to humans – creatures of too different a nature to contact directly. But the idea of words and physical limitations was alien to the Entity – it needed approximately a week of trial and error to create its first two working interfaces. Once it got the hang of it, however, thousands of interfaces were spawned in hours. The Entity is the pinnacle of evolution of a four-dimensional being – it sees deep into the flow of time and believes it never was and never will be destroyed. But someone like you, Haru-nyan, someone who can control time to their liking, was a threat even to the Entity. Fearing you, the Entity never made attempts at meeting you directly."

"And the Canopy Domain?"

"Canopy Domain-sa? So that's how Yuki-chi called those fellows?" Tsuruya asked "They are an entirely different bunch. They were born as a five-dimensional existence, above anything you can imagine… but they are not so smart, those fellows. Lowly as it sounds, they are best described as a simple multi-dimensional bacteria. They poured excessive amounts of power into mimicking the Entity's interfaces. In six-month's time, there was a single success – Suou Kuyou, as you most likely suspect."

Tsuruya shrugged her shoulders in an abashed expression.

"They can barely learn from their mistakes, nyoro. Unlike the Entity, they would need those six months **again** to make another interface. And when they observed you never performed multi-dimensional changes, they dared take the risk of seeing you face-to-face. Except they still needed a container similar enough to a human… a human would suffice, actually."

Haruhi's eyes narrowed.

"You never knew, Haru-nyan, but hundreds died around the world as those fellows tried again and again to integrate with humans. To contain such a soul, so infinite a power, is not something a mere human can do – and it was morbid to hear about people dying _hallowed_ – it was supposed to be a disease, but could any disease possibly tear a man apart from within in five minutes, less even, when that same man had been entirely alive but a blink of an eye before… It was all random, just who got to senselessly die on any given day. Yes, they did deduce that brain power could provide processing power and thus increased chance at stability, and, growing desperate, they circled Japan, hoping to find those affected by you, Haru-nyan, but in the end it was all random, _danse macabre_ – perfect equality in the face of death and its roulette. With maybe one exception."

Tsuruya snickered.

"Your espers never manifested their powers in regular realities. Time travelers never used their devices outside controlled areas. Because of limitations and regulations? Or maybe not? How tempting a prize it would be for those fellows – a human already infested with irregular energy, capable of withstanding it for long periods of time, and perhaps even linked to you, Haru-nyan. Had there even been a single trace of their aura… Ironic is it not, Haru-nyan? Merely knowing Mikuru killed me – 'curiosity killed the cat' indeed. But there was more because, finally, I proved to be a being above the threshold, a suitable 'hive'.

If Haruhi's expression became still more grim, Tsuruya's mood had honestly, truly lifted.

"I'm dead, nyoro. I stand before you a corpse. But even this make-believe existence won't last much longer, this mind will soon be fettered into servitude and the body will corrode, leaving nothing but dust behind."

"And you know, Haru-nyan, it will all be meaningless. If I do nothing and pass away, the cycle will continue. If I let you exterminate myself, those fellows will be reborn in whatever world remains. This is the devil's scenario written for me by what I cannot control. Can you imagine this choking awareness – that you will vanish having accomplished nothing, for no purpose whatsoever? When you had people you wanted to save? Well, nyoro?"

Haruhi looked away for just a second, but her lips contradicted this moment of weakness, forming the reply she knew so well in the very same instant.

"I never knew anything."

It lacked remorse, for an admittance of utter failure.

"I was so taken up searching for the unknown, I missed all the simple things. I couldn't see Itsuki-kun burying his feelings to control me, Mikuru-chan sacrificing hers to appease me and Yuki giving her life to cleaning up after me. I couldn't see the price they all paid for my sake, just as I couldn't realize what you were going through. I accept this fault as my own.

Haruhi's hand rested on her pocket, where Yuki's letter was safely hidden, accompanying her on this final journey.

"But as everything came to an end, they bore no grudge against me. They believed in me and what I wanted… because they understood it well. Because somewhere along the line, we've all become friends who can trust each other."

It made Tsuruya blink, something, dazzlingly radiating from Haruhi's face, like sunlight tearing through clouds, and it had always been there but she hadn't been able to grasp it, not until she saw this broken smile. It was otherworldly.

And it was the melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi.

"But I learned from those mistakes. I see you here, I hear your voice – I know Tsuruya-san is alive. I'm not letting her go. I know her well enough to know she is still fighting. I know she has a plan. And, right now, I'm a friend enough to believe in her to the very end."

"_This is the truth behind her melancholy…"_

…the truth behind her melancholy, that she had lost happiness twice, once confronted with the insignificance of her existence, once robbed of friendship rediscovered, reclaimed. That now she earnestly, fervently wished to regain those days.

And that she was willing to believe in any single remaining friend.

Tsuruya laughed, laughed, laughed.

It sounded like a cackle to her, broken and dishonest. But, likely, that wasn't the case at all. Her very own laugh was too deep ingrained in her to yield even now. Surely, it was merely her conscience playing tricks on her, shattering the thousand-fold shattered image of reality once more.

She really was running out of time.

She really was happy.

"Haru-nyan, Haru-nyan…"

She wanted to express her gratitude, but the proper words had resolved not to come to her.

"A strong will may strengthen fate. But an unyielding, believing heart can break any fate, whatever it may be."

She helped herself with this passage straight from TV. Haruhi wouldn't recognize it, and it seemed fitting enough – wasn't life simply the most sublime of dramas?

Haruhi nodded in acceptance, as if there had been something she could acquiesce to, as if that passage had been an opening of a grander, preset play.

Tsuruya never failed to oblige.

"Could you look up a bit, Haru-nyan? To my left."

She didn't bother looking herself, she felt even now the connection, knew what Haruhi would see floating in the air. Knew long enough before Haruhi could make it out, black on the black of the night sky.

"It took me some time to make that, even with the theoretical details worked out beforehand-sa. It did pass the time waiting for you, though."

"A metal ball?"

Snicker.

"I didn't expect you to appreciate it," Tsuruya sighed wistfully "It doesn't seem like much, nyoro."

Her downcast expression was obviously fake.

"But it is megas-nifty indeed! It's a million tons of ferromagnetic materials enhanced, compressed, and restrained. The greatest magnet, to cover Earth itself."

"And what for?" Haruhi asked. The sinking feeling in her stomach told her she already knew.

"You know what Koizumi-kun would always say about the world? About how without humans to observe it, there is no existence at all? I suppose, this is yet another way of ending the world… because all humans have iron in their blood."

For a short moment, they were both silent.

"Show me, then." Haruhi said, her tone level.

There was the night sky, and a snapping of fingers, and dark tentacles of metal devouring the light of stars as they gobbled up everything in their shadow – the moon was gone, and the whistling of metal piercing air at a preposterous speed was weirdly reminiscent of the carefree chirping of birds-

Haruhi watched as the black mass went to end her world.

* * *

**Preview:**

_Haruhi staggered.  
_

_"I-impossible! You weren't there! You couldn't have!"_

_But her protests changed nothing._

_"This is Sasaki's true memento," the advancing figure smirked "The way to overturn the will of gods."_


	6. Theory

**AN:** Welcome to all readers. Things are getting hot as the inevitable resolution creeps ever closer. Don't be afraid to review and tell me what you think of the developments!

**Last chapter:** Haruhi and Tsuruya. Passion, determination and a single blow to end the world. The clash begins, and the fate of the world hangs in the balance. The victor? What exactly is victory?

* * *

Haruhi felt cold.

The metal mass had moved almost entirely away, revealing more and more stars in its wake. Haruhi was cold, colder with every shining dot that returned to the sky.

It was dreadfully silent.

Hearing the voices of all people in the world in the back of her head had overwhelmed her at first. So much so that she had been unable to think straight or tell her own ideas apart from the thousands of foreign others. Before she noticed, though, she was tuning the voices in and out as she pleased, and they became a source of familiarity and reassurance for her.

Now she was robbed of it all. She felt a gaping hole in her consciousness, giving out nothing but silence.

"Well, sa."

Tsuruya was out of breath, and as she turned around to look over the abandoned city, it seemed as if her legs were about to fail her.

"That's the feeling," she paused for a quick intake of breath and continued speaking in short bursts "My grandmother. My father, somewhere. A sleeping friend. They were all there. Now, it's this feeling of emptiness, sa?"

She faced Haruhi, and saw the girl faring no better, worse even, than herself.

Haruhi's face was pale, her breathing irregular and her whole frame swayed. Those bright eyes barely remained focused. The rest of her body appeared ready to fall apart at any moment.

Tsuruya could guess what her friend was going through, but no more than that. She was glad for it. She already had to struggle to maintain her lasting reality manipulation, even without another factor to unbalance her. Ignorance also had another upside.

"I thought him, of all people, you'd protect, Haru-nyan-n."

It made beating the last nail into the coffin that much easier.

"But I don't suppose Kyon-kun could've possibly survived that, sa."

Haruhi lurched forward, fell to her knees, now even her eyes dulled and- It was true. She couldn't feel anybody which meant she couldn't feel Kyon because he was no longer there. It was like feeling sick. Only it wasn't her stomach feeling upset but her whole body, every pore of it wishing to reject this horror, this chasm, this pain, no, _this world_.

For the shortest of moments, Haruhi _let go_.

"Think about it," such were the words of the late Koizumi Itsuki "Think about it, that should the world have been the least slight bit different, any one fact, one constant, and there would be no life at all."

"For example, all matter draws other matter towards itself. Planets capture planets, Earth enslaves humans, atoms travel to other atoms. It's merely the work of intermolecular repulsion forces that allows all things to retain their individual, separate forms."

Tsuruya understood, for the split-second it took for the entirety of her existence to cave in on itself, that it was enough to… release… those forces, and the world was lost.

Haruhi's fit was over – she reached out with her hand to grasp at something slipping away, but, just like the revolting feeling, everything around was already gone.

There was a bit of anxiety, but much more honest puzzlement in her as she looked at her new surroundings.

All around her stretched endless blank space. There was no boundary in this vast plain, neither a ground nor a sky to define its limits. It did nothing to make her feel insecure – rather, it gave a sense of freedom and her feet easily found support in air. The up and down were hers to choose. The realm would have been foreboding, Haruhi thought, if not for the iridescent, ubiquitous, orange jelly hanging in the void.

If you can see the jelly, the jelly can see you! Or something to that extent, because wherever Haruhi concentrated her gaze, the fluorescent object sprang to life and leapt at her, joyfully circling round and round her nose, making her dizzy.

"**Ha! Ha! Ha!** _Everything!_"

Haruhi gasped, spun. Her heart leapt. The source of the laughter, that unmistakable figure, and her eyes widened in disbelief.

"The end of time! Sea of chaos! The Word that was with God! Call it whatever you want, and so megas much of _Everything_!"

Mirth had left her half bent over, but Tsuruya seemed to find no difficulty in screaming all this out in a far-reaching voice, not showing even a sliver of her previous fatigue.

Haruhi was about to say something, question the laughing girl's ramblings, when a blob of the jelly passed her an inch away from her face and she saw. It was true – somewhere, somehow, the blob contained an old gramophone, some of Einstein's better ideas and the song of a young, bathing queen Elizabeth. That was just the surface Haruhi skimmed, and within the blob's depths was an infinite number of every single thing.

Haruhi shook her head to tear herself away from this bizarre spectacle.

"What are you doing here, Tsuruya-san?" she demanded "I-"

"**Destroyed the world!**" Tsuruya interrupted her, pointing an accusing finger at Haruhi with so much glee it made the grin on her face look scary, seemingly ready to scream out 'Objection!' at the top of her lungs and close the won case "And I hit my third jackpot!"

Haruhi blinked, but Tsuruya now seemed indefatigable as she raised both her arms in a grandiose gesture.

"Everything! Every smallest action here twists infinity, gives rise to an absolutely inexhaustible number of possibilities, those fellows can predict _nothing_ here! This is the end of their elusive dominion!" she twirled her arms and looked ludicrous doing it, like a prideful chicken flapping its wings to impress another "Proof? I am alive! They pre-programmed me to survive the end of the world just in case, knowing I could provoke it when outside their control, but not knowing the results, unable to foresee this place existing!"

"World destruction as a means to a greater end?" Haruhi asked in exasperation "You megalomaniac you."

Tsuruya smirked, twisted a hand in the air and the goo around Haruhi became searing hot and went into a frenzy.

Haruhi leapt back on instinct, possibly saving herself from being decapitated. Her incredulity lasted only that long, however, and the offending mass was gone the next instant, wiped away by the power of her will.

With a mad laugh, Tsuruya prepared for another assault, but no sooner had she made the slightest move than Haruhi pointed a finger at her. Tsuruya was enveloped in an orange aura, flashed green for a second, was back to normal right after and took two gleeful steps towards Haruhi.

And then her legs buckled under her and she fell to the conventional ground, coughing out blood for it to float in the endless space.

Haruhi looked at her friend severely.

Tsuruya struggled to speak amidst her coughing, barely raising her head to meet Haruhi's eyes, but her spirits didn't drop.

"Magnificent, Haru-nyan!" she praised "Antimatter forged perfectly to end me – miniature dots of absolute destruction. Those I could stop, you knew, with enough probability manipulation, but sneaked in-between them a million collapsing atom cores like so many of your own suns, heralding your glory with their radiance. Even as I removed all of them, their heat permeating the air, so very damaging, I did not, and so I fell to you."

"That was stupid, Tsuruya-san" Haruhi grimaced, not really proud of her handiwork "I don't think I can be defeated right now."

Chuckling weakly, Tsuruya picked herself off the ground.

"Sa," she nodded in agreement "Finish this, Haru-nyan."

Haruhi stared at her unblinkingly.

"Here, there's a way even that parasite can be killed – something I worked so hard for, sacrificed so much for, this chance," Tsuruya seemed to have calmed down and her smile returned to normal proportions "With everything you've got, Haru-nyan, finish it all!"

Their eyes locked onto each other.

Silence from Tsuruya, who had nothing more to say.

Silence from Haruhi, who had no idea what to say.

With no point of reference, time was lost for them.

Haruhi's lips moved.

"Cease to be."

The darkness was torn asunder with a pillar of light and that unforgiving shine devoured Tsuruya completely.

It thinned the next instant.

Haruhi remained facing it.

The light disappeared. Tsuruya remained facing Haruhi.

Even as her eyes widened, Haruhi's mouth moved again.

"Cease to be!"

The brilliance came down again and again it went away. To no avail.

"It is the prerogative of existence to recognize itself," Tsuruya recited in a sing-song voice, somehow managing to slip in a note of apology "Things are or things are not, through the power of their own validity."

Haruhi staggered.

"I-impossible! You weren't there! You couldn't have!"

But her protests changed nothing.

"Sasaki-chan's true memento," Tsuruya's daring smile belied her quiet voice "The way to overturn the will of gods."

Haruhi had seen that once before – numbers, equations and calculations all swirling around as if they were no longer mere ideas, but a palpable _force_, Sasaki had explained that in detail, called it her-

**"Law of Logic."**

The power surrounding them rushed at Tsuruya, attached to her back and snapped into the shape of a single luminous azure wing, writings falling from it instead of feathers.

"I heard the original, ten minutes long version even before Sasaki-chan presented it to you, Haru-nyan" Tsuruya explained "But it is only against you, who warps reality so indiscreetly, that thought can be used as a weapon."

Tsuruya waved at her adversary invitingly.

"Now that you cannot simply erase me, Haru-nyan, what will you do?"

Haruhi pulled her composure back together.

"Like I did Sasaki," she responded calmly "I'll kill you in a _perfectly logical_ manner."

The void was void no more.

Haruhi didn't have the time to see Tsuruya's reaction before the other girl was hidden by a literal wall of spikes emerging from the air. It would be satisfactory for Tsuruya to die impaled or crushed. It would be even better to make sure – Haruhi changed the composition of the weapons after the initial impact and let them serve a new purpose as explosives.

The goddess bathed in fire and smoke.

With a wave of her hand, she cleared the air. Her own fire didn't burn her; her own smoke didn't choke her. For anyone else, they were lethal.

For Tsuruya, they were lethal.

Haruhi walked up to the unmoving body suspended in the void, allowing her eyes to trail after the last bits of the azure wing now detaching from its previous host. From up close, she could confirm what her expanded senses had already told her long before – there was not a spark of life in the body before her.

It was a curious corpse, with spots full of holes, others burned to a crisp and the rest in perfect condition – results of Tsuruya's last ditch probability manipulation. Haruhi kneeled, reached out and closed the girl's eyelids.

"You admitted this kind of manipulation was not unlimited. Sooner or later, I'd get around your defense if I forced a large enough time loop on a simple, physical attack," Haruhi sighed "But why did you copy Sasaki's power in the first place?"

"I do look kind of pathetic, sa."

Haruhi fumbled and fell on her bottom. Her breath caught in her throat. Before her lay the dead Tsuruya. Above her stood a living, smiling Tsuruya.

"I envy Sasaki-chan. Her law is so lucid and orderly, when she had little time to prepare it," the reborn Tsuruya glanced wistfully at the wing reforming on her back as it absorbed the calculations surrounding it "No matter how much I dwelled on it, I couldn't match her craftsmanship."

One, two Tsuruyas – both were genuine. But probability manipulation affected resources present; it couldn't _create_ a copy of something.

"If all possible causes lead to all possible results, are we not merely burdened by the former? Are we not defined perfectly by our desires, rather than the uncontrollable processes leading to their realization? Isn't the destination the final, only truth? Can we not ignore reality and grasp the favored outcome?" Tsuruya went on "These questions were the only way I could express it. My own-"

"This is madness," Haruhi blurted out.

**"Problem of Inconsequence."**

A tornado of images enveloped them, pictures of what could be surging at Tsuruya and perching on her back, coalescing into a short and rugged, deep green wing.

"If I die, I am dead. Break the chain of cause and effect, though, throw away all causes, and you can die and live to tell the tale."

Haruhi gawked at the horrid absurdity before her.

"And now Haru-nyan, that you can neither erase nor kill me, what will you do?"

Haruhi's stupefied expression told Tsuruya everything she needed to know.

"Then, sa, if you cannot stop me, watch me surpass a god."

"Wait, Tsuruya-san!" Haruhi screamed, panicked.

"In my right hand, the Law of Logic," Tsuruya extended her hand as it filled with azure light and took a step towards the sprawled Haruhi "In my left hand, the Problem of Inconsequence" she lifted her other hand - it glowed green, and took another step forward.

Haruhi knew she couldn't be hurt, but she was shaking with fear as she tried to crawl away from Tsuruya. She didn't know the reason behind this fear. That only made it worse.

"Within those clasped hands-"

"**Tsuruya! Stop this!**"

**Chapter 6**

**Theory of Everything**

Haruhi felt sick. It was the same feeling she felt when all of humanity was lost. Maybe not as strong, but no less painful.

She forced herself to endure it and raised her eyes to look at Tsuruya's hunched form. For a short while, the wings on the girl's back had shone a divine cyan, but they were slowly coming back to their original colors. Tsuruya did not move for what seemed an eternity, and her hair hid the expression on her face.

Finally, the winged girl let out a hollow laugh.

Haruhi knew immediately it sounded wrong.

"Foolish girl."

Tsuruya faced Haruhi, but her eyes were a ghastly green and her voice that of a thousand snakes hissing in unison.

"She wanted power, more and more power until she could destroy us. She couldn't handle that. She ran out of time."

Haruhi forced herself up, but her legs failed her right away. The weakness wouldn't leave her. Even when she needed to be strong. Face to face with the Canopy Domain.

Before she could utter a curse, the demon was before her with an outstretched hand.

"Now you, our treasure, **become a puppet!**"

* * *

**Preview:** ...


	7. Those Moments

Haruhi took a mighty swing, putting all her energy into the kick, her movement an explosion and lacking nothing of the shots of football stars that made humans into legends.

Athletic as she was for a high school girl, it was unlikely her foot connecting with the man's abdomen would cause permanent injury.

Apparently, it didn't need to.

Suzumiya Haruhi, in full glory of her high school uniform, stood victorious over a terrified hobo who, defenseless as he was, made it a point to demonstrate his complete and unconditional submission. It made for a gripping picture.

Some people shared this view - they passed the pair by, feigning disinterest, but turning their eyes to follow the spectacle as it unfolded, pausing, approaching shopkeepers but buying nothing, finding excuses to stay where they were a minute longer.

There were those who didn't want to see this. they turned away, avoided Haruhi's gaze, pulled at their children's arms to drag them away, giving no explanation for their actions and, in their troubled states, had no comfort to spare for the little ones. Oh, they would never admit aloud (if they would, indeed, at all) that they were _fleeing_. Those were the lucky ones.

Yet others wanted nothing to do with the scene and nevertheless felt compelled to stop and participate, pushed along by an invisible force. As if they had the right disposition, but no fortune on that particular day.

With a last derogatory glance, Haruhi let the hobo be.

"People!" she shouted, and it was at this point that the actors had been decided and all doors (yes they were in open space) mercilessly locked.

"People! You feed your children! You support this country! You work hard every day for the rice you eat at home!" no one dared to interrupt her, and it was almost pointless for her to raise her voice when the sound of a pin dropping would have been clearly heard in the silence. Haruhi paid this no heed. "This man does not! Is he not a parasite!? A disgrace!? Does he not wrong you!?"

Regardless of their previous feelings, all the onlookers were now afraid. They fidgeted, sneaked glances at each other from the corners of their eyes, but no one of them voiced an answer. They acted in the perfect unison only present when everybody expects another to perform an unpleasant duty in their stead.

"Judge him!" Haruhi roared at the dumbstruck crowd in barely contained rage "Weigh his sins and declare his punishment!"

The spell of silence was finally broken with the prostrated man's quiet sobbing. The weaker ones in the crowd broke with him - some even tried escaping. It was as if someone had secretly splashed the road and pavement with water, though. The slippery surface invariably made all would-be escapees fall to the ground and effectively kept them from standing up.

Haruhi waited for a response for a long time. She not only waited, but also let her fury boil.

"**What the hell is wrong with you people!?** If he has not harmed you, why do you let him go around hungry, homeless, needful?"

Many bodies joined those already on the ground as people fell to their knees in fervent apology.

Disgust evident in every bit of her features, Haruhi snapped her head away from them and towards the crying man at her feet.

"If this is your fear on this world, I make it so that you will never die of hunger."

The man didn't stop trembling.

"But everything has a price. You will be hungry," she snapped her fingers "and thirsty," she repeated the gesture "forevermore."

In mere moments, the man thinned and his face sagged, losing any trace of strength it might have possessed before.

"And when you reach out to satisfy this hunger or quench this thirst, all food and all water will elude your grasp," Haruhi went on, not even a trace of her former passion left in her voice, all replaced with disinterest "This is my judgment."

She left the man lying on the ground without giving him another glance and went into the crowd.

"And you," she pointed at a female trying to pick herself up "Are** you** free of sin?"

The woman's horrified screams pierced the heavens.

This was but one of many possibilities.

**XXX**

Haruhi twirled the marker around in her hand.

She held a red armband in her other hand, ready to be labeled with her newest position, tied to whatever the SOS-dan would be doing next.

Of course, it wasn't like they were currently doing anything noteworthy.

"Stupid Kyon."

Even the 'they' amounted only to her and Mikuru. Kyon had cleaning duty (he could have asked her to help him but **no**). Itsuki had his part-time job. He always did when she was in a bad mood. Yuki wasn't in her corner reading, either (and so unusual an occurrence it was Haruhi had no idea where to look for the girl even if she wanted to).

It was booring.

"Mikuru!"

The tremulous girl gave a jump as she was forcefully dragged away from the happy world of her thoughts and tea-making. How she had managed to drift away to that place with Haruhi radiating restless energy like a leaking reactor in the very same room was a small wonder in itself.

"Um... yes?"

Haruhi twirled the marker once and twice. It was just asking a question, how much could her pride suffer from it? She wasn't hopeful or anything.

"Kyon told me you, Itsuki and Yuki are a time traveler, esper and alien respectively," Haruhi rattled out, much to Mikuru's surprise "Can you tell me more about it?"

"Eh!? Um... no."

It wasn't even a lie, what with both of them understanding the answer differently.

Haruhi looked at her suspiciously, but gave up uncharacteristically quickly.

"Stupid Kyon, making a fool out of me."

Haruhi smashed her elbow into her commander's desk, rested her chin on her fist and turned to the computer screen. Mikuru took it as a sign she was free to relax. She was right - Haruhi paid her no more attention.

The usual lull returned to the clubroom.

Mikuru watched the growing puffs of steam escaping the teapot and started merrily preparing tea leaves. Haruhi, on the other hand, was punishing the mouse buttons with more and more agitation.

"Honestly," and despite Haruhi only half meaning it, it was this word that might have started everything "Will they ever make an internet browser that works?"

Mikuru started pouring hot water into cups for the two.

"Neurodynamic prompting made browsers obsolete before any one of them was perfected, I think."

She picked up the steaming cups.

Haruhi banged her palms onto the desk, her face terse, lips a thin line, eyes burning.

"What did you say!?"

For the second time that day, Mikuru jumped in fright. It was the combination of Haruhi's expression and raised voice that startled her. She barely held onto the cups in her hands.

"I said..."

Now the cups did clutter to the floor, breaking and spilling their contents.

"...neurodynamic prompting made..." Mikuru's voice was between small and entirely inaudible, and her hand went to her mouth as if to confirm it really was her speaking "But that's classified information! I shouldn't even _be physically able to..._"

Haruhi leapt from behind her desk like a predator springing at its prey. She was in front of Mikuru before either of the girls knew it, hands outstretched and ready to pin the smaller girl down by the shoulders.

And then she faltered, took a step back and withdrew her arms.

"Mikuru-chan can't lie, right? You aren't playing with me, right?"

For the first time in front of Mikuru, Haruhi sounded _vulnerable_.

Amidst the thousand chaotic thoughts racing in Mikuru's head, two stood out.

Haruhi's power had accidentally removed the limitations placed on her.

And the second one.

After months of helplessness and swimming along with the merciless current, she wanted Haruhi to know. She wanted Haruhi to set her free.

This was something that had almost, but never quite happened.

**XXX**

Nagato hugged the wall as she limped out of what was left of the building which had borne witness to the greatest inter-interface fight in history.

She was already beginning to notice friction hurt her, especially when in contact with so solid an object. At the same time, she could find no method of allocating the physical strength available to her which would allow her to stand without the additional support.

She needed to stand, to go forward, if only for the childish desire to see her remaining friends for reassurance. She wanted to help them; she couldn't help them, and she knew it. Within the storm of opposing circumstances and thoughts, her cognitive ability seemed to have turned coat against her, causing havoc where it should guard order.

She felt she was outside first by the increased pressure air put on her, it was the wind she was no longer shielded against. The feeling was reminiscent of a handful of burning charcoal being pressed to her face. How would sunlight embracing her feel, if it could pierce the clouds above?

It was the fault of her peculiar state that not all information registered properly in her mind, not all matters were put in order of their priority. She watched the figure closing in from a distance like one does dripping water when the subconsciousness is otherwise occupied.

With hair flowing in the breeze, Tsuruya approached her to within half a stone throw's distance, the expression on her face a perfect mask, not even letting on whether she was smiling honestly or intentionally obscuring some other feeling.

Somehow, at this moment, Nagato knew. Facing the Canopy Domain twice in but a few minutes had taught her enough.

"Don't hold not noticing until now against yourself, Yuki-chi," Tsuruya said in place of a greeting "In the first place, we only met when I was in control and the presence of those fellows was diminished," she gave a chuckle "Not that that applies anymore. I may still be clinging onto my own existence, but I must already reek of their aura, right?"

Nagato didn't get to respond.

For all intents and purposes teleporting, but in fact changing the possibility of the pace at which she had approached the interface to adjust her position, Tsuruya appeared right in front of Nagato and pinned the smaller girl to the wall.

"You don't look too well, Yuki-chi," Tsuruya whispered worriedly "In your current state, what are the odds of you defeating me?"

It didn't take long for Nagato to respond.

"Below two point seven percent. The actual number cannot be calculated without knowledge of the full extent of your probability manipulation abilities."

Nagato was almost happy - this made things easier, in a way. No, she wasn't giving up. She would fight tooth and claw and every inch of what was left of her data manipulation and make it the hardest earned two point seven percent of Tsuruya's life, but it was now clear what use she could be. She would charge forward and-

Tsuruya faltered and detached herself from her captive, as if Nagato's answer had taken all meaning away from the attack.

"I know you can feel fear, Yuki-chi. But still, you say the truth so easily..." Tsuruya looked as if someone had whisked a delicious cookie away right from under her nose "First Sasaki-chan and now you. Do you find it pleasurable to make me feel inferior, sa?"

Nagato's eyes were glued to Tsuruya with a question-like edge to them.

Tsuruya sighed, but clapped her hands twice immediately after. What happened next was like a pot full of boiling water having its lid lifted - green energy flew from Tsuruya in all directions like released steam. Immediately after, the girl looked completely wasted. The skin on her face sagged, her hair lost its shine and her posture slackened, as if she was a deflated balloon losing more and more of its precious air.

Yuki watched on as this happened, seemingly as impassive as ever, but her eyes tried all the harder to look into the other girl's thoughts.

Unperturbed by the gaze, Tsuruya kneeled and bowed to the interface.

"Without probability manipulation, I am even weaker than you right now, Yuki-chi," she smiled "But I will tell you a tale of a lonely girl and her gamble to save the world. Once you are satisfied, I'll have you make a choice: kill me here and delay those fellows for a few months, or risk everything and end it all on this day."

"If I were to help you, what aid is required?"

Nagato took no time at all to ask this.

Tsuruya raised her head.

"I'd need you to... write a very special letter."

This was something which had indeed happened.

**XXX**

Sasaki's fingers moved mechanically, not against her will, but most certainly without her telling them to.

She had already ran out of living targets to attack as part of her scare tactic and merely directed smaller blasts at the girl cowering before her.

Balls of fire, homing thunderbolts or crushing windstorms, but all failed to reach her, dissipating at the borders of a nonexistent but bafflingly effective barrier. There was no other response, no counterattack, other than this absolute defense.

the conscious mind of Suzumiya Haruhi refused to accept the fight, but even her subconsciousness couldn't be beaten.

Sasaki felt a wave of amazement with just a tinge of frustration. Neither feeling was hers. Apathetic as she was, she didn't even care if the stalemate lasted forever.

But it wouldn't. Down there, Haruhi was grasping in the dirt for her cell phone, the terror on her face instantly giving way to an entirely different, but even more intense expression.

Sasaki's body halted, waited a singly expectant second before renewing the assault. The next salvo didn't dissipate. It flew right back at Sasaki with double the strength.

The reversed blast hit her square on, burning flesh, breaking bone, spilling blood. She couldn't smell the smoke coming off of her own body. The distant, ticklish sensation of pain she could feel, the very first sensation in what seemed an eternity, and her mind whispered in discontent.

There was a good distance between them, just enough for Sasaki to make out the features of Haruhi's face, certainly too far for her to hear the word Haruhi muttered under her breath.

What was distance to Haruhi?

_"Vanish."_

What pinned Sasaki to the ground was no intricate, godly power. It was just sound waves at ridiculous volumes and frequencies.

Yes, Haruhi's mere whisper shook the world, entering every nook and cranny, but also diving deep into things, pulling in all directions and tearing all apart. If Sasaki only shook like the victim of an electric surge, worse off were the buildings around them which lacked even the small degree of supernatural protection she had. Concrete shattered like glass, a thousand cracks marring the surface of every edifice for the split-second it took for them all to crack and snap in half. the groan of those dying structures could have deafened any sound known to man. What was it, though, compared to Haruhi's divine cacophony, if not a joke?

None of the debris ever reached the ground.

The actual manifestation of Haruhi's will, rather than just the order, was an insatiable aura of light, devouring all existence. Sasaki never got to see the objects around her disappear, it was as if Haruhi's brilliance had outmatched even the sun, swallowing up all of its shine like it did to matter and rendering human sight useless. Sasaki, every tiny particle of her being, was next in line.

Only now, her mind roared.

Released like a previously caged beast had always been ready to pounce, it clawed at the reality around her. First stirred awake by that twinge of pain, now fully unleashed, primal, primitive, based on more chemistry than thought - a human's survival instinct.

Sasaki's consciousness first piggybacked on that instinct, and then it rode on it proudly and victoriously as it broke fetters of soul one by one.

No instant had actually passed. In truth, Haruhi's light had both enveloped and never reached Sasaki at the same time before it was rejected by Sasaki's own - the glow of the absolute embrace of Logic.

The moment the world returned to normal and she could once again see Haruhi, no, maybe even a hundredth of a second before that, Sasaki could already feel the cold hand of apathy trying to grasp her again. She needed to hurry. Hurry she would.

The azure wings on her back were the wings of her courage.

"All existence has a single form, a single state, a single identity in any single instant. Because it is, and because it is defined, it is the privilege of existence to recognize itself."

Sasaki amplified her voice the same way Haruhi had previously, using the stolen shard of the girl's power she now possessed. She never paused, it was imperative that she didn't, never gave Haruhi a chance to interject and, with possibly as little as a single word, finish her off.

"Within Logic, things are or things are not, through the power of their integrity. things that are not cannot be brought about. things that are cannot cease to be. Only within Logic, all things can change. A selfish wish may cast away Logic, but with that it gives up the hope of change. Where no laws, not even laws of change exist, existence recognizing itself, clinging to its own form, state and identity, is enough for it to become immortal."

Sasaki went on and on, and Haruhi could no longer listen. With hands clamped over her ears and tears flowing down her face, she screamed out to the heavens.

"Die! Just die already!"

Inevitably, Sasaki would oblige. That change, from life to death, was ordered by the word of a god. And as she went, the smile on her face was that of pure relief.

This was something which had indeed happened.

**XXX**

"Speak, Itsuki-kun! I want your answer!"

Haruhi had the attention of everyone in the room. It would be hard to ignore a girl from a different class barging in and shamelessly harassing a well-respected classmate. Her accusatory tone and high-pitched voice convinced everybody this was the real deal and no staged drama. The males listened in because it was the rumored beautiful poison Suzumiya Haruhi taking the stage. The female part of the class paid attention because it was a _girl_ approaching the ever-popular Itsuki (and so boldly!). The true reason behind their perplexed expressions, however, was different. Her question:

"What supernatural powers are you hiding from me?"

Indeed, things like that could gather a lot of unnecessary attention. It could even be said that the only person in the room not gaping openly at Haruhi was Itsuki himself, his eyes half closed, calculating gaze peering at her from behind clasped hands and intertwined fingers, any surprise he might show perfectly disguised.

Only the long-lasting silence that followed instead of a swift and cheerful 'whatever might you be talking about, Suzumiya-san?' was like an open admission to her. he would crumble. He would start talking and, instead of another smart alecky comment, he would tell her in detail about wonders she couldn't have previously imagined. He had to! Her heart was already beating too fast and still it wanted to go faster. Yet another second. It was a simple question, what was he waiting for?

All the other people now decided to ignore them.

Haruhi whipped her head around in shock. It wasn't that Itsuki's classmates had lost interest in them. No, they all simultaneously suffered from a selective memory lapse and forgot the pair even existed in favor of returning to their previous activities. As in, some started nodding their heads along to the tune of a song which had long ago finished playing on the mini-radio, others restarted their conversations mid-sentence or even, Haruhi was sure she heard it right, _mid-word_ without anyone being one bit surprised.

Haruhi's eyes flew back to Itsuki. Too late. In the instant she had lost sight of him, his posture had minutely changed, as if he had slightly relaxed, or maybe it was something else, she couldn't tell without having witnessed the transformation.

"My power, Suzumiya-san, is to make people see whatever it is they wish or expect to see. In me, themselves, or their surroundings," finally, Itsuki lowered his hands to reveal a satisfied smirk "In short, the power of absolutely bullshitting people."

Haruhi was breathless, speechless, and Itsuki reveled in being able to affect her so.

"Admittedly, for fear of being detected by outside parties, I can only rely on it fully in your all-concealing presence."

"You're an esper."

There was more to Haruhi's question-statement than met the eye - a child asking permission to keep a mountain of sweets all to itself, but fearing its parent's anger and punishment. Itsuki knew, the sheer intensity of emotion sent a shiver down his spine.

"Yes."

Haruhi's mouth trembled without producing sound, as if she had trouble catching air. Her next question was only meant as a self-serving distraction.

"You've used that power on me before, right?"

Itsuki hurried to please.

"When you subconsciously allowed it, yes."

"I forbid you to do that anymore! Be honest with me!"

Haruhi attempt at turning her emotion into anger was only half successful and her voice was still shaky as she berated Itsuki.

Itsuki himself didn't seem like he was taking her words to heart.

"I don't think you'd really like that, Suzumiya-san."

Indignant and unwilling to lose face, Haruhi gave her all to convince him otherwise.

"I want that!"

She didn't notice the boy's smile becoming strained.

"I demand that!"

Itsuki snapped.

It was hard to catch Haruhi off-guard. Even now, she saw the actions coming. She just couldn't comprehend them in time. Itsuki's arm snaked around her waist, one of his hands rested gently on the back of her neck, pulling her closer to him just as he lowered his face, his lips mere inches away from hers.

"You have no idea what your smallest desires do to me, _Haruhi_."

Daringly, he leaned forward.

Flesh on flesh, Itsuki's face met with Haruhi's open hand.

"Idiot!" Haruhi let out, startled, angry and, no matter how much she'd like to hide it, very much embarrassed "Honesty aside, the leader of the SOS-dan won't allow for such lack of discipline!"

Itsuki fell back, the left side of his face a vicious red, but he still managed to laugh in amusement.

"Well, since you've almost ordered me to just do it, it was at least worth a try."

As much as he was making fun of her, his words still sounded good-natured. Maybe because he was also making fun of himself. Haruhi wouldn't let herself stay behind for long.

"You've broken the five minute record quite handily, Itsuki-kun," she cut back, all surprise and embarrassment replaced with her usual beaming energy "It's not like I've ever forbidden anyone to try again, though."

As they remained staring at each other, teasingly and challengingly, the other occupants of the classroom phased out of their weirder activities fluidly, regaining clarity of thought with no one being any wiser that a whole conversation between the two had gone by.

that was one thing Itsuki wouldn't be reporting to his superiors, either. Although the need for any reports whatsoever was temporarily gone. When Haruhi had become aware, they had all realized instinctively it had happened. Now he only had one true leader to obey.

He didn't mind that at all. Seeing Haruhi's grin and her now shining face, he couldn't imagine having anyone else guiding him.

And so he told her.

This was something that had almost, but never quite happened.

**XXX**

Haruhi pressed her hand down on the man's shoulder.

The air in the room was heavy, the silence thick. It wasn't the first time the pristine office would bear witness to world-shaking actions and decisions. However, this time only, the change would come from the whims of a single person forcefully dragging all humans into a grand and cruel game.

Haruhi was the only female in the room and by far the youngest there. All but one of the others were senior, smartly dressed politicians or military personnel. That also went for the one Haruhi was pinning down as he sat behind the single oaken desk in the room. The only exception was a man a few years Haruhi's elder, bewildered, panicked and completely out of his depth. He threw quick glances at all the other man in turn, risked a look at Haruhi, twitched nervously and then began the cycle anew. His only purpose there was, seemingly, to bring in drinking water when asked to.

"I repeat, we will not retract our previous statement nor will we withdraw any of the activated forces or engage in any treaty talks as of today."

The man at the desk spoke this into a receiver, his face remaining an expressionless mask. Haruhi applied more force to his shoulder, squeezing it painfully.

"For the sake of the Japanese Empire and the All-Sovereign, God-Empress Haruhi," the man added before cutting off the connection.

Haruhi released him, satisfied, and started pacing back and forth across the room, her ecstatic grin hiding who knows what thoughts.

The men trailed her with wary eyes, but none of them dared to do anything more than watch. She had already demonstrated numerous times, with great flare and ease, that armed or unarmed, ordinary men meant nothing to her safety.

Haruhi repeated her fast-paced trip from one corner of the room to another a dozen times when the young assistant jumped in fright. His hand flew to his earpiece transmitting a message from outside the room. When it ended, he looked up to see he had become the center of attention.

"Signals detected coming from the east. Confirmed to be missiles aimed at various locations in our country. Suspected presence of nuclear charges. More intel incoming," to his credit, he managed to relay this without stuttering. But not without sweating. For various reasons.

Haruhi, on the other hand, only grew more delighted.

"That's a nasty crisis we have here gentlemen," she quipped, laughter slipping into in her voice "But fear not, you will learn to depend on me soon enough."

There was, after all, a couple minutes left to make those missiles vanish.

"You assured us there is no limit to your _abilities_, miss," one of the men addressed her "However, I understand it is not possible to vanquish all our opposition instantly. If there are any conditions or a specific location that would help utilize your talents to their full extent, we'd gladly provide-"

"**No.**" Haruhi broke him off.

She knew where all this was heading - yet another attempt to learn of a weak point of hers or to get her out of Japan so they could scheme in peace.

"I'm not going to learn Russian for the sake of world conquest when I can do it from here," she replied coldly "I could _vanquish_ anything, but I'll only interfere as much as absolutely necessary for the sake of my plan. taking away the free will of people would be an empty victory. I'll slowly convince them to worship me instead."

No one responded, no one objected.

"This should keep me amused for some ten years," Haruhi mused, turning to look out of the window "And once I'm done conquering Earth... well, there's always outer space."

This was but one of many possibilities.

**XXX**

"Here."

Nagato tipped the kettle in her hands and let the green-colored liquid fill Haruhi's cup.

Haruhi accepted the treat, gaining a few more precious seconds to think about what she was actually there to say.

The tea was good, Haruhi thought. This wasn't the kind Mikuru would make, first surprising with the slight variations in taste, and then capturing you entirely - an invisible net of fragrance, color and light disappearing into the liquid depths. It was something else, warm, simple and with a frankness to it you would be hard pressed to find in any other tea.

"Is it good?"

Wordlessly letting Haruhi in, setting off into the kitchen and soon returning with tea, this was only the second thing Nagato had said that evening.

Haruhi nodded in confirmation. Like she had gained access within the apartment by pointing with her eyes. or how she had gotten past the videophone by selecting Nagato's apartment number and then ringing out SOS in Morse on the pad.

Unlike Nagato, she had said nothing at all.

This was Yuki, after all. The girl who now looked at her from across the table with those brilliant, piercing onyx eyes. The one member of Haruhi's club who never had reason to rebel but never feared to outperform the leader. Beneath the surface, she was untamed.

Haruhi noticed that she had already sipped away all of her tea. She was no wiser on how to break the ice as she set her cup down.

Yuki refilled it instantly.

Once more, Haruhi indulged herself in the momentary excuse of drinking. The problem wasn't Yuki - not the calm, silent bookworm they all had to look out for. But if there was someone else hiding behind that face, cold and calculating, always looking and...

When exactly had Yuki stopped wearing glasses? Back then, when Haruhi had first visited the apartment... but if she didn't need them, why put on the facade? Why drop it later on?

The empty cup clicked on the table a second time.

They leaned forward.

Nagato had wanted to pour Haruhi yet another round of the hot drink. but she hesitated, stopped by a distant memory and the question of how much liquid humans could take in before they had to 'make use of the toilet'. Haruhi, on the other hand, was prepared to block any access to the empty cup, fearing she might burst after a single gulp more.

They must have looked, Haruhi thought, completely absurd. Yuki with the silent question of 'don't you want any more?' in her frank eyes, Haruhi with the silent plea of 'no more please' in hers. Wordless communication pushed to the extreme.

"It's fine, Yuki," the words finally came out. It didn't hurt. Haruhi had to wonder what irrational fear had kept her silent for so long.

Yuki nodded and relaxed, maintaining eye contact with Haruhi.

"You're not from this Earth, are you, Yuki?"

Haruhi blurted this out without giving it much thought. That almost made it sound like a question regarding the weather.

"Correct."

Nagato didn't even blink.

"You possess supernatural powers?"

"Vast."

"You were sent to observe us."

"Correct."

Yuki replied affirmatively to the question which didn't specify who 'us' meant. At the same time, Haruhi ran out of the quarries Mikuru's short exposition had given her inspiration for.

She would wait for the alien's judgment. Would the observation end now that Haruhi was aware of it? Would Yuki simply abandon them or erase their memories first?

Nagato's apartment was no stranger to silence and it welcomed it like one would an old friend.

"Must this affect my membership within the SOS-dan?"

Haruhi blinked. Had she heard that right? Was this what Yuki was worrying about now?

"N-no!"

Haruhi could swear there was the smallest change in the other girl's expression at the answer. She wouldn't go as far as to call it relief, but...

"Come to tomorrow's club meeting like always!"

Slowly, Yuki nodded and stood up, having Haruhi automatically do the same.

They went out in a far better silence than the one that accompanied them as they had gone in.

When Haruhi turned to wave Yuki farewell, the humanoid interface spoke one last time from behind half closed doors.

"When you have a happy world, protect it."

Maybe Haruhi didn't understand, or maybe she did.

This was something that had almost, but never quite happened.

**XXX**

Kyon walked out of the house, the uniform babble of English news still trailing behind him. It was cold. He was restless and Haruhi was somewhere out there, alone saving the world. He was not in high spirits, certainly not now.

"What do you want?"

Kyon's annoyance was evident in his voice. He demanded an answer, already spotting an oncoming game of deception, one he was unwilling to play along with.

"You had to be the one."

With that ever present smile of hers and long hair flowing in the wind, Tsuruya replied enigmatically.

Enigma was a stupid black box with lots of wires and cylinders changing one letter of the alphabet into another for the single purpose of making texts temporarily incomprehensible. Kyon hated stuff like that. If you didn't want to be understood, you shouldn't have spoken at all.

"Why aren't you with Haruhi?"

He envied that warm-looking coat.

"I am with Haru-nyan. Omnipresence is an ultimately simple, if draining, effect of probability manipulation. I am there; I could be here-sa."

"And what's happening there?"

"With Haru-nyan? Talking-" Tsuruya stopped and her eyes widened "-and she overwhelms me once again. Another wonderful, wonderful person and another piece of this grandiose puzzle. But even more so, time is of the essence!"

Kyon responded to Tsuruya's chaotic speech with his patented weary stare. The urgency in her voice was compelling, telling him to help her for old times' sake. But he wouldn't move unless he knew everything.

"What do you want?"

Kyon repeated his earlier question. he did not expect Tsuruya to launch into a detailed explanation. She did just that.

"You interacted with the brilliant Sasaki-chan. I don't think you formed her, Kyon-kun, that would be taking away from her own character and achievements. No, sa. I think you helped polish her."

Tsuruya smiled at him even as she listed her observations, treating him as a lecture subject to be properly analyzed.

"Whatever you did, sa, she rejected the powers of a god when she had the chance to get them. And then came Haru-nyan, equally as dazzling as Sasaki-chan, but infinitely more cheerfully volatile, and with the abilities to enforce her whims."

Kyon shivered in the cold. His mind fed him the bizarre details his observant eyes had captured. Like how Tsuruya's cheeks didn't redden even as she spoke excitedly in the unforgiving cold, her face like unchanging porcelain.

"And she did! Sa she did! _Abandoned_ this world by starting another. But you were there to firmly say 'no'. You brought her back, not even forcefully."

Kyon recalled that incident with mixed feelings. And whether his actions back then were forceful depended heavily on your definition of the word. One thing was true, it was Haruhi's own will that had returned things to normal.

"That in itself was a pattern-n. But then our fragile Yuki-chi took the gamble of altering the world. And again, it was you who set things back on the right track, and that sealed the deal."

"Hold on." Kyon held up his hands, cutting in uncharacteristically "Nagato made the backup program, I just helped execute it."

"That's just it!" Tsuruya agreed unflinchingly "You are a normal fellow, Kyon-kun. It's not a power or ability, it's a quirk - resilience. It rubs off on others and sooner or later affects their judgment. You are so effective, I had to notice how you were the final piece. You had to be the one."

"The one what?"

As Tsuruya's smile stretched, Kyon knew he wouldn't like where this was going. Tsuruya never disappointed.

"The sane one, sa."

Kyon showed no reaction, but only because he had expected an answer that wouldn't make sense from the start. It was quickly becoming a staple of his everyday conversations.

"I've gone over the edge a long time ago, sa. Haru-nyan would follow, I knew, after she had to kill Sasaki-chan. Sasaki-chan broke because I asked her to. Finally, Yuki-chi needed to confront her sister, sa, and even she would lose her balance."

Kyon listened in with the overbearing feeling that it was the 'between the lines' that counted. Here was a girl orchestrating the doom of all mankind and inviting the gods themselves to stop her if they could. Kyon knew very well how fragile his existence was, insignificant in the face of cosmic powers; he had almost met his end skewered in a momentum-nulled space. But it was not the matter of what Tsuruya could do that made her dangerous - it was the things she alone knew.

"They say it's the mind that's sick when madness strikes, but I think they're a bit mistaken, sa." Tsuruya plowed through her lines resolutely, determined to see things through to the end, whatever Kyon's reaction might be "It's just the image of reality that shatters once more. A replaceable painting of this world that every human has one of. An overvalued commodity."

Even as she was saying this to Kyon, Tsuruya was simultaneously bantering with Haruhi, maybe a minute away from showing the other girl her own way of shattering the world. It was now or never, but Kyon would pull through.

In this cold, cold night, with the daredevil smile that made her truly her, Tsuruya prepared to risk the world.

"But when everything is over, at least one such image is absolutely, desperately needed intact."

It was something that had indeed happened.

**XXX**

Tsuruya swung her legs in the air.

Balancing precariously at the edge of an elephant-sized mountain of sweets, all clad in a tight-fitting costume of fiery red and yellow, the bells decorating her cap clinging merrily with every her move, the openly laughing girl was a peculiar sight.

"Why does one such as you laugh?"

From the foot of the sweets pile, Haruhi addressed her carefree friend in an over-dramatized fashion. Talking to someone so high above her would normally serve to strain both her neck and voice. But, of course, Tsuruya didn't need to hear anything for them to go on.

That solved one of their problems - the crown on Haruhi's head tended to fall off whenever she raised her head too much.

"I laugh; only in laughter is there flight." Tsuruya rocked her head to jingle in tune with her words "With what little time one has in this world, the choice is but to wait and die, or laugh and fly."

Inexplicably, she reached behind herself and pulled out an oval vial of a light-green liquid, huge letters labeling it as 'POISON', and took a healthy swing out of it. In the next motion, she threw the bottle aside with unrestrained force.

It was probably supposed to land on the pile of sweets somewhere out of sight, but as luck would have it, the vial rolled off the mountain and smashed into the floor with a resounding bang.

Tsuruya threw a quick apologetic smile to whoever would have to clean up the mess.

"And why would you mourn, my lord?" jumping right back into her act, Tsuruya spoke to Haruhi below.

There was a short pause.

"Because as a human, thrice was I to value and thrice to learn the vice of my desires - first, it was 'justice'."

Tsuruya leaned forward in interest, resting her chin on her hands.

"Because judging the world is also hurting it?" she inquired. Haruhi nodded in response.

"Second is 'power'."

Tsuruya let her hands drop and cocked her to the side, jingling as she did so.

"Because power has to be affirmed?"

Haruhi nodded again.

"And the third will be 'control'."

Tsuruya leaned backwards.

"Because control... is just that." this time, it was no longer a question, but an expression of sympathy.

Haruhi nodded a third time nonetheless.

"Much is there good and much evil in a man, both waiting to be realized." Tsuruya acknowledged lightly "But between choosing either and the loss of fulfillment, the path to take remains obvious."

Haruhi's brows furrowed and she opened her mouth to speak. She was silenced by violent jingling. Tsuruya picked up where she had left off once she was certain the attempt at an interruption was quenched.

"You protest, but look at this," just as she had the mysterious vial previously, Tsuruya produced a gun from behind her back with no explanation what it was doing there in the first place "This is a weapon with a purpose more clear-cut than that of a human. Yet no different from us, it can serve both good and evil."

The firearm looked like something from before the previous century. It was large, unwieldy and had a tag with the barely legible caption 'belongs to Chekov' hanging from its end.

"tell me, then, what its existence means when it will not fire at all? When I'm not there to fire it?"

One second, Tsuruya was holding the gun firmly in her grasp. Another, and her grip slackened, sending the weapon plunging down, right in front of Haruhi's nose. For the people who still remembered her drinking from the suspicious bottle, this was a belated effect of poison. For those of the audience who had already gotten lost, it was merely another entirely whimsical action.

Haruhi jumped away from where the heavy prop had nearly conked her on the head, surprise and anger in her eyes.

Ignoring everybody's reactions, Tsuruya took off her cap, threw it away and smiled a devilish smile right at Haruhi.

"Will you be there to fire it for me, Haru-nyan?"

This was absurd and improbable.

But still a possibility.

**XXX**

Haruhi marched briskly forward, barely giving the automatic door enough time to slide apart.

"Itsuki-kun, Mikuru-chan, do the orders. The rest goes with me."

Filled to brim with restless energy, Haruhi seemed to give out orders in her usual uncompromising way. Nagato saw the slight aberration in their leader's movement patterns, Itsuki could read the girl's aura, and Kyon would just say she appeared somewhat distracted. But whatever it was, it was there.

"We'll make it short today, I have stuff to do." Haruhi announced as they claimed a table.

Nagato had no reaction to this news whatsoever. Kyon wondered what could possibly be so important as to outrank the pleasure of bossing others around on Haruhi's list of priorities. Seeing as his expression was eternally fixed into that of mild annoyance whenever he was around Haruhi, though, he showed no outward reaction either.

Haruhi's impatient eyes went to search for the pair they had left at the counter. There they were, already closing in with the ordered snacks. The cafe's staff knew the group well and served them quickly. Kyon's wallet also knew the cafe better than it wanted to.

Calmly plowing through the crowd on their way, Mikuru and Itsuki joined the rest of the SOS-dan and set down the plates.

Boring. Haruhi's annoyance spiked.

Now Mikuru crashed into an elderly gentleman mid-way, dropping everything in her hands and emitting a tiny screech.

This was interesting! Utensils in the air, people falling over like domino pieces, screams of fright and anger alike. Haruhi's own chaos raged ever further, spiraling out of control.

The contents of a wayward flying coffee cup splashed all over Kyon.

The boy jumped away from the table, announcing his displeasure to the world with some harsh words.

Haruhi didn't mind him getting burned a bit. What doesn't kill you strengthens you. Only, it hit her he would have to go get himself clean. And, on top of that, they would have to make another order. A terrible waste of time for something so entirely pointless.

So Mikuru and Itsuki delivered their lunch safely enough.

"We're going to Australia!"

Haruhi could always be counted on to cut straight to the point.

As usual, the news passed over the assembled SOS-dan members like a wave - Itsuki beginning to formulate plans in his head, Mikuru showing her surprise and worry, Yuki making some slight move implying she had heard. Kyon commenting.

"Why not some more practical place? Like Osaka." he countered Haruhi's enthusiasm with his favored fry tone.

Haruhi grimaced. Couldn't he say something more interesting?

"Fine," Kyon countered Haruhi's enthusiasm with his favored dry tone "If you're the one paying for the tickets."

Haruhi cringed. What was his problem now?

"Have you gotten a sudden interest in cattle?" a spoonful of sarcasm in Kyon's favored dry tone "Visiting a zoo would be faster."

Why did he have to get under her skin so stubbornly?

"It's a nice idea, Haruhi."

Haruhi started.

There he was, smiling amiably and praising her idea. That was Kyon, in face and physique. But not in manner and voice. She... had she gone too far?

Haruhi scanned the faces of her other friends. She didn't find them surprised or concerned. Of course, for them of this world, Kyon must have always been like this - an easygoing yes-man, so different from his true self. Haruhi had been messing with his answer, and now she had what she had wanted.

She felt sick seeing her handiwork.

The table screeched as she pushed it away, trying to escape. Her leg caught onto something on the way and sent her tumbling down.

She reflexively broke the fall with her hands. Only one of her knees got slightly scrapped. She immediately tried to pick herself up.

What interrupted her was the extended, helping hand of the ever-beaming Kyon.

Then, and only then, did Haruhi's eyes fill with tears.

The world she saw blurred, but it was not the fault of water impairing her vision. She just made the abomination disappear.

Haruhi entered the all too familiar sea of all-white once more. She would make another, better, more genuine world. Only the scrapped knee would remind her of this failure.

She had the control to make that happen.

This was but one of many possibilities.

**Chapter 7**

**Those Moments, Akin to a Ten Hundred Thousand Suns Rising to Hail You...**

Haruhi's bloodshot eyes snapped open and her body instinctively tried to breathe.

The Canopy Domain lowered its hand and stepped away in satisfaction.

"The free will of humans is based on their inability to foresee the consequences of their actions," the creature hissed venomously "It is enough to show you all the possibilities and already you lose sight of yourself. What are your morals if you've done everything, 'good' or 'bad'? What is your future if you've seen everything there was to see?"

The green glow surrounding Tsuruya's body seemed to grow ever more vicious, outshining the pair of wings on her back.

"Now, human, what do you require?"

It knew, and it would enjoy this moment to its fullest.

Haruhi gawked at open space, her eyes entirely unfocused, a trickle of spit on her chin. She wasn't aware enough to feel it.

But her lips moved. Awkwardly, but they moved.

"I need... orders."

* * *

**AN:** This is, for many reasons, a special chapter. Relationships are defined. Holes filled. Chaos introduced. Also the first one I had to work on from my new college. But, long as it is, I think it's worthwhile. Thank you for reading it.

I've brandished all my tricks. Thus, a special offer. Whoever guesses accurately what happens (and **how** it happens) in the next one or two chapters gets a reward. Have a go at it.

**Preview:**

_Hand atop hand, and Haruhi placed her own on the two._

_It was simple._

_But did it need to be complicated?_

See you next chapter!


	8. Quod Erat Demonstrandum

"I need... orders."

Haruhi whispered this in a soulless voice.

The Canopy Domain heard her perfectly well, the answer it had predicted, even without access to its probability insight in this space.

It didn't laugh.

"Come to use and we will guide you, free you of your indecision. Forevermore."

They were offering her to lose herself. And she would accept. The decision itself was a mere formality changed nothing. She had already lost too much to hold onto whatever remained.

"I need orders," she confirmed to the Canopy Domain's satisfaction "But..."

The five-dimensional parasite watched on quizzically as Haruhi struggled with uttering words. Spoken language was a part of her humanity, and she would soon forget even that.

"But I want you dead," Haruhi forced out of herself.

The Domain raised its eyebrows in light surprise.

"Emotions. They remain vivid within you even when you cannot recollect their cause. Do not worry. This feeling will disappear, like everything else, in mere minutes. Just wait, and you'll be free."

It explained all this with the comforting voice of a parent reassuring their child.

Haruhi's face relaxed slightly and took on a more natural expression.

"Yes. Freedom..."

Then she grimaced in fright and pain.

"But it burns!"

Haruhi wrapped her arms around herself, clutching desperately at her coat, screaming, shaking, anything to alleviate the hellish suffering but everything in vain.

The Domain stiffened, mirroring Haruhi's reaction with an angry and uncomprehending frown. This wasn't supposed to happen.

But within seconds, the frown transformed, filling not only with new levels of burning rage, but also with revolted recognition.

"Our own probability manipulation..." it watched with hateful passion as one of Haruhi's coat pockets bulged and spat out a small will-o'-the-wisp. The ball of what seemed to be fire immediately began spinning around Haruhi at near-lightning speed "...and the abominable data manipulation combined."

Haruhi didn't hear it. She breathed heavily, fighting off the last, weakening waves of pain. Her eyes were scrunched shut, small tears evident in their corners, traces of her own fingers would be left where she had dug them deep into her body. And it did her good.

"Your orders," the pain, the anger, that miniature sun - a distinct memory of Mikuru putting so much trust in her, and when Haruhi next opened her eyes, they were filled with intent "when Mikuru asked me to liberate!"

The goo around them went vicious.

More like a waterfall than thick ooze, it slammed together into a single current and then rushed forward, smashing into the Canopy Domain, enveloping it.

The being lurched back and met the onslaught with an outstretched hand, the green glow of its powers sprang to life - possibilities of the blobs not attacking, of being aimed elsewhere.

It was not enough. It was not fast enough.

The Domain was flung to the right just as its appendage, torn easily off, flew to the left.

The mass of goo blew past it and went into a giant arc, slowly forming a ring around the last two beings.

"Your guidance," Haruhi let out through gritted teeth, letting her emotions fuel the menacing mass, spin it around faster and faster; now there were two wisps orbiting around her "when Itsuki told me to lead!"

Streaks of blazing goo launched from the ring all across its surface.

The Canopy Domain fought back. A phantasmal arm flashed into existence to replace the lost one as the creature used probability manipulation on itself - the possibility it had not been hit. the previously lost body part dispersed into nothing as new reality reasserted itself. The Domain paid that no heed as it spread its aura to take on the bombardment coming from all sides.

Its efforts couldn't stop everything.

Projectiles pierced right through it, carrying Tsuruya's blood with them as they entered the opposite side of the ring to prepare for another go. But their target would not falter or succumb to any wound. The gravest injury disappeared in seconds, a single green flash replacing months of recovery. And the more damage it sustained, the faster the Domain fixed it, as if tapping into ever deeper reserves of an unlimited potential.

"Your ambition..." Haruhi spat out as yet another fireball left her pocket.

The ring widened, without thinning like any finite material would have, until it became an encasing dome radiating its threatening glow from all around them.

Haruhi and the Domain shared hateful looks.

"...when Yuki ordered to protect!"

The dome descended upon them. No longer an attack of beams but a regular whirlwind of destructive mass filled every inch of open space, miraculously increasing its volume not to leave a single opening in its wake. It didn't take one second for the maelstrom to divide the two opponents, grasp them so completely in its jaws they lost sight of each other. It wouldn't abate for a for longer time - such was the relentless wish egging the mass on. And when the storm started the calm, the fact itself was enough for it to burst into life once more - it had seemingly a pride of its own, couldn't bear to become weak, to release its prey, to yield to mere tenacity.

So it disappeared only begrudgingly, haltingly. Single streaks of opened space danced before Haruhi, multiplying to reveal to her the outcome of her rage.

The Canopy Domain had not moved. Or so it appeared, with its eyes still aiming their venomous glare towards Haruhi. the creature was disheveled beyond description, its hair and clothing clinging to its body like wet rags. Every inch of its body shone that deathly green, but whether it was the glow of a million wounds or whether it had physically died and revived itself, a droplet replaced with another indistinguishable alternative, Haruhi didn't know. it didn't matter.

"Not enough!" the monster screamed at her in triumph "Not," and its screech was filled with sadistic satisfaction "enough!"

Haruhi's face contorted in fury so vicious it was entirely unnatural for her. The fireballs around her entered a flashing, spinning frenzy, putting words in her mouth.

"You are limited, your power finite. Cling onto your life, but sooner or later you'll make that one mistake and fall to where you belong!"

She slashed a hand through the air, leading the goo into another maneuver. So the blob-like mass parted completely, and showed the true aftermath of the clash.

Haruhi's unwavering ire succumbed, for that single moment of shocked realization.

"Your time is a drop of water, our power a vast ocean. But that..." the Domain spread out its arms, as if willing to embrace the entirety of the carnage "...is entirely meaningless."

A massacre. But every slaughter has to it a degree of realism that screams at you, if not to accept it, to run as far away as possible. This was grotesque. Crimson - airborne pools of blood without a surface to splash on or gravity to give them direction. But it couldn't cover that ugly painting, bodies a landscape - mutilated, bent bodies, their final destination an unreal pattern of twisted forms stacked one upon the other, spinning slowly like exhibits in a museum. Each cadaver was true enough - the widened eyes, lips parted in a shared scream, revolting enough, but together...

Such was the graveyard of only one girl - Tsuruya a hundred times dead in retribution for her sin of attempting to surpass destiny itself. The one left standing, the Domain, a living lie, all that remained of her.

"She didn't know what she was doing," the five-dimensional existence hissed "as she reached for the power to defy everything, and thus made that power our own."

It had that moment of hesitation, a falcon with prey in its claws.

The Domain's presence swept through the area, nothing but a translucent shape in appearance, nothing short of a hungry beast in speed. Haruhi reacted instinctively, willing its influence not to reach her. But this time she was on the defensive, moving too late and swaying as the malevolent intent smashed into her ad hoc barrier.

That happened in the split-second her mind needed to comprehend her situation. Once it had comprehension, it could have a wish. And from a wish an order.

_Disperse._

The vile power did. Instantly.

It seemed they had returned to their previous stalemate, the power of one not reaching the other. It wasn't so.

Haruhi felt it first as a wave of boredom, of not being able to care anymore. And then she saw with her own eyes, realizing for the first time they were even there, the once-bright flames around her, now tiny and smothered by green fumes.

The objective of the attack all along.

"It is not the power itself that threatens us," the canopy Domain said "but the artificial desire to destroy us that drives it."

Haruhi stared dully at the flames, as if trying to grasp what they had done to her a mere moment before, what was taken away from her just now. She reached out tenderly for them, having them obediently fly towards her, and cupped them in her hands.

"You cannot restore them," the Domain announced "And not because you lack the power to do so," and, for once, the creature's hissing voice had to it a measure of wonder rather than condescension "but because, as a human, you lack the will to knowingly choose one lie over another."

Haruhi lowered her hands.

She reached into her coat pocket, seeking the last traces of warmth she could still feel. She retrieved Nagato's letter with unsteady hands. The piece of paper was half-burned, black marks the only thing staining its perfectly white surface. Where Haruhi's fingers touched it, the fire sprang anew.

Her hands fumbled and it fell to her feet, as if it alone had weight and could behave normally in this world.

And after a second of nerve-wrecking stillness, the smoke coming from it coalesced to form a final fireball.

Haruhi's eyes filled with a foreign desperation. The Domain's eyes filled with renewed anger.

They moved simultaneously.

The void around Haruhi shone green as she dived for that last spark of hope. Tendrils of the Domain's power overtook her. then they stopped, were stopped, Haruhi's divine power slashed through them. They formed anew. Lurched anew towards their target. Relentless.

Haruhi's hands smashed through the green fumes and clasped the will-o'-the wisp.

The power around her flew back to where it belonged. She made no further move, seemingly uncertain. Afraid. The Canopy Domain remained where it had stood, motionless, with a sneer on its face. Waiting. Both waiting for the judgment.

Haruhi unfurled her fingers and stared deep into the depths of the flickering, stifled flame in disbelief. The Domain grinned.

"Lie upon lie, all to defeat what she herself called the god of lies. Manipulation and so little honesty, always shouldering all the responsibility herself, afraid of depending upon others."

Haruhi raised her head to look at the speaking Domain, her eyes devoid of her previous anger. Devoid of everything.

"She never left you a single truth to cling onto. Such was the flaw in the plan of the girl you knew as Tsuruya."

Haruhi stared unblinkingly. The terrifying creature in a girl's body, the two radiant wings on its back, the corpses strewn around, the orange goo in the distance.

Ever so slowly, she closed her eyes.

"Tsuruya's failed plan?" she asked in a whisper "As in... you admit she and her plan existed?"

The Domain's grin faltered.

Haruhi's eyes snapped open.

She whipped her hand through the air and tore one of the fiery orbs - the involuntary admission of Mikuru - apart.

"A lie!"

There was no pause before her hand slashed again.

"Another lie!"

Koizumi's confession disappeared into the depths of unrealized possibilities.

"Mere lies!"

The memory of Yuki followed into the footsteps of its predecessors. Haruhi swung her hand a fourth time.

The goo around them was aglow. The Canopy Domain itself radiated three kinds of light. But they nevertheless seemed to be plunged into darkness as the light of the last fireball disappeared.

The Domain blinked, too bewildered to draw satisfaction from Haruhi destroying the last means of her own support in this world.

"If Tsuruya existed, if she had a flawed plan, if you and I alone remain..."

Haruhi's frame shook with the effort to make that one connection, one leap of logic.

"then she bet everything on me! Then this-"

_With what little time one has in this world, the choice is but to wait and die, or laugh and fly._

"-is an extraordinary lie!"

She opened her hand. Her face was bathed in a warm glow, fire burning happily above her palm, the final spark rekindled.

Green waves embraced her immediately, hastily, embodying both the Domain's anger and panicked surprise.

Haruhi let them come, watched them placidly without moving. Watched them burn as the fire she cradled turned gold in color and caught onto the vile aura.

And then her eyes, very alike that golden fire, went to the Canopy Domain.

_"Vanish."_

That desire descended, cleft and erased, as it had before, in the form of a brilliant light. It fell right upon the Canopy Domain.

Which had never been there in the first place. The possibility that, all along, it had stood just a few steps to the right. Reality readjusted itself and so did Haruhi's will another pillar tearing through the space, this time vertically, to capture its target.

The Domain put little effort into this godly game of cat-and-mouse, disappearing and reappearing just fast enough not to be consumed. But in reality manipulation, there was little distinction between a great feat and a small one.

But the Domain was angry, fed up with this prolonged epilogue of its ascent to supreme power.

"You will not hit," it hissed at Haruhi "As long as you have to aim, you can miss. As long as you can miss, we will evade."

Already, the world was filled with a spiderweb of nullifying energy, dense and blindingly bright.

Haruhi snorted.

"You're absolutely right," there was something in her eyes, right next to the fear, the desperation, the clinging to a tarnished self-awareness, that was like a trickster's spark "There won't be any collateral damage if i don't bother aiming."

So she didn't.

The tiny fireball in her hands exploded with light. The golden radiance took in everything: the goo, the dead bodies and the Domain, intent to leave only Haruhi herself behind.

It was quick, over in that single flash.

Where there had been silence before, a thundering popping sound erupted. The orange blobs had vanished, but now they noisily returned to existence. Haruhi paid them no heed.

The Canopy Domain stood tall, swamped in the bluish light of its right wing.

"That inexplicable power which could instill fear even in us," the Domain ventured "To think it would be rendered a non-factor by none other than that human, Sasaki, a mere pawn of ours. Another one of Tsuruya's mistakes we are thankful for."

Haruhi shook her head.

"That's a beautiful ability. A complete truth even you had to accept. Whichever Sasaki existed in my world, she understood logic perfectly. And Tsuruya..."

_Will you be there to fire it for me, Haru-nyan?_

Haruhi gazed at the golden flame in her hand in sudden realization.

"...had no idea about chaos at all."

She remained gaping at the swirling, dying light.

"It is over," the Domain announced, annoyed, taken aback to see the girl accept failure so calmly now, after all the struggle "You cannot defeat us."

"I cannot," Haruhi acquiesced, lowering her arm.

She raised her head, met the Domain's eyes, nodded and started walking in its direction.

Just like that. Everything over. The popping noise disappeared. Haruhi kept on walking. Kept that weary smile on even as she spoke.

"After all, you've already been defeated."

**Chapter 8**

**Quod Erat Demonstrandum**

"What?" the Canopy Domain demanded.

Haruhi shrugged. She was certain the Domain had heard her correctly, anyway. Repeating herself wouldn't change anything at this point.

"There are, of course, questions I'd like to ask," Haruhi said with a bit of shy reserve, like one asks a neighbor to borrow them sugar "One of us must have brought about the destruction of the world. Me or you? Was it necessary? Did they suffer?"" Haruhi shook her head slightly "But I have no time and it wouldn't even matter. Not with the double checkmate we're in."

"Will you keep on babbling nonsense until the very end?" the Domain cut her off, unamused, bored with the game.

Haruhi shook her head once more.

"It's not like I don't understand your attitude. I'm tired, too. Very tired," she gave the Domain one last look and closed her eyes "We may begin, then?"

The Canopy Domain wouldn't grace that with an answer. She took the silence as agreement.

A deep breath. She cleared her throat, opened her eyes to peer deep into the azure wing on the creature's back.

"All existence has a single form, a single state, a single identity in any single instant. Because it is, and because it is so defined, it is the privilege of existence to recognize itself," Haruhi recited, as if reading from the wing's surface "The Law of Logic."

The Canopy Domain merely looked at her expectantly and so Haruhi went on.

"For existence to recognize itself, for it to be, and for it to be defined, it is the duty of existence to have a single form, a single state, a single identity in any single instant." Haruhi paused, giving the Domain a second for her words to sink in "**Law of Logic Contraposed.**"

The Domain's azure wing burst open.

It didn't disappear. It stretched, thinned, spun-part of it returned to its original shape, but already the rest formed miniature threads that shot out with enough force to topple the Domain with backlash alone, and then they entangled it and wrapped themselves around points all over the empty space, tautening as if they had real support.

"this is the price one such as you, with no true form, human in body, living potential in spirit, has to pay for the protection of Logic," Haruhi explained calmly.

The Domain struggled within the confinement, squirming and turning until it returned to its previous standing position.

"A parlor trick!" the Domain spat "You still cannot reach us!"

"No," Haruhi confirmed immediately "This is Logic. Integrity. Protection. Even as an abomination, you needn't fear harm from it," she laid it all out in a light tone "This merely ensures you exist here and now. that you are present to be destroyed."

The Domain snapped.

The area exploded in green colors, blow after blow of the potential manipulation raining upon Haruhi. But, even as it diminished further with every second of the assault, the golden-hued fireball circling around the girl made sure to burn everything up before it could reach her.

"To define oneself only through one's desire. to ignore reality and grasp the favored outcome. To break the chain of cause and effect and throw all causes away - The Problem of Inconsequence," Haruhi shook her head sadly as she read this from the deep green wing "Tsuruya tried to define Chaos, but, without realizing it, she was only grasping at Freedom.

The wing flashed viciously, acknowledging her, awaiting her words.

"If Sasaki sought Logic, then I sought Chaos. I learned its allure and its pitfalls. I understood it. Accepted it."

She said this calmly, and feared her own words all the way.

One last shuddering breath.

"And all causes are discarded. And all goals are reached. And then what? The future - the first step shifts into the second, effects become new causes. but if we throw away causes away, how can we make another step?" If our truth exists only tomorrow, what right do we have to exist now?" Haruhi's voice was tiny. But it was enough "**Problem of Inconsequence Perfected.**"

The green wing on the Domain's back trembled and collapsed.

And then it burst out through the creature's chest. an instant before a blood-freezing shriek erupted from the parasite's mouth.

Haruhi watched on as part after part of her tormentor's body caved in and fell apart into dust, turned inconcequential and thus denied the right to exist. The wing twitched spasmatically, spreading its poison - once a readily accepted defense, now more akin to the barrel of a loaded gun.

The Domain gritted its teeth to suppress further screams of pain. Already its powers rushed in to revert the wounds icurred, aided in this task by the azure radiance of Sasaki's memento as it strived to protect the truth of existence until the very end.

The Domain reared its face at Haruhi, its expression that of anguish, eyes desperate and searching for salvation, as if it could convey emotions equally well through thos borrowed body body as it would through one of its own.

And then it smiled.

Haruhi glanced breifly at the source of its relief - the flame of her awareness, now reduced to a single spark. the Domain had collapsed to its knees , suspended by azure threads, but it no longer shook in pain, as if the twin theoretical powers had found a compromise, some state of absolute inaction between existence and nonexistence both could be satisfied with.

"You will fall before us," the mutilated thing wheezed out "and we will have all!"

Haruhi pitied it.

"One day, Logic and Chaos might work together to seize everything," she allowed " But not today."

She dropped to one knee in front of the Domain and reached for its hands.

"Within your right hand, the Law of Logic."

The familiar light filled their joined hands. Haruhi wondered which particular Sasaki of all the possible ones had given birth to that comforting presence. Had she met her in person, before all this happened?

"Within you left hand, the Problem of Inconsequence."

And now, Haruhi's own presence. It felt like like discovering herself anew, a single, definite version of herself.

Haruhi turned to watch Tsuruya's face. Who was this girl? Of the myriad of possible histories, which one was true and had lead the pair up to this point?

Haruhi didn't know which Tsuruya was before her. She just knew the girl had sacrificed everything for freedom. For the human desire of Choice.

"Within those clasped hands-"

If that couldn't justify her actions, nothing would.

"**Theory of Nothing.**"

Everything and nothing. Fanciful names for the two sides of the same coin.

For a second, the Domain, no, Tsuruya, raised her head to give Haruhi a toothy grin, only partly obscured by the falling pitch-dark feathers.

And then she was wiped away from existence. Completely. Meticulously. Every part of her. From every place, every time, every possibility. Instantously. Haruhi fell forward as her support disappeared.

The fireball by her side burned out.

For a moment of silence and calm afterward Haruhi drifted purposelessly in the infinite space. Thinking.

She ran her hand across her foreahead, pretending to wipe off sweat. Her whole arm was black, and the color was spreading further down her body. She partook in nonexistence, and would have to take everything of nothing.

"What made you smile in the end, Tsuruya-san? Or was that the choice you sought, the last one you could make? To laugh and to fly?"

Haruhi looked wistfully at the orange blobs above her.

"Or maybe you expected me to save the world? Even though you knew i would have lost too much to even save myself."

She held her hand in front of her face, watching its contures become blurry, indistinct from the surrounding space.

Her gaze fell to her feet.

It didn't even last a second, but just then, her eyes widened and lips formed an ironic smile, not much different from that of Tsuruya.

And then she too met her end.

* * *

AN: ...and then there were none.

Thank you to Theos Amneos, whose insight helped me decide how to present some aspects of this chapter. Also thanks to everybody who made a guess on what was to happen, I promise to get in touch with you before this story is wrapped up.

And now, towards the future?

**Preview:** _He understood. And he kneeled._


	9. Epilogue

Kyon opened the door.

He closed it immediately after.

He spun on his heel and retreated deeper into the room. His body was stiff, not acting in accord with his feet – he poured all his energy into not registering what he had seen and had none left to unfreeze himself from the artificial pose.

Merely walking didn't occupy his mind enough and so he started counting backwards from forty-two. The number was random. He didn't believe it to be the answer to life, the universe and everything, or anything like that.

Did you know that the stroke number for forty and thirty-nine in Japanese is the same? The number of kanji is different, though.

Oh, and thirty-nine is three times thirteen.

He tripped over some chance piece of the junk they had accumulated over the year. He was against keeping all the stuff in the first place: they no longer played half the board games and he could only pray the filming equipment would never again see use. The stuff now sought vengeance.

He wouldn't let it have it its way.

His hand shot out and caught the edge of the table set up against the wall. His body tipped forward, but his leg freed itself just in time for him not to take down the table down with him and, in a single huge half-bow half-step, he regained his balance.

An unjustified look of smugness appeared on his face and he straightened with affected nonchalance, reaching for a cup of tea lying on the table and raising it to his lips.

His satisfied expression wavered as he realized he didn't really want to drink that. It had already grown cold. Not that it had been a good drink while warm – he couldn't find sugar and some of the blessed substance was badly needed to kill the unpleasant bitterness of the liquid. After all, it was merely something he had prepared himself. Had it been the charming Mikuru who made it…

What was left of his mask crumbled away.

His game of complete ignorance couldn't even buy him ten seconds. Now he was staring into the ugly face of reality once more. Because Mikuru wasn't there to make tea for anyone.

He set the cup down carelessly and turned again to march towards the door. The foreboding thing was only four short steps away. The hard part, a task bitterer than the most ineptly made tea, was opening it.

"_Suzumiya Haruhi might be God."_

His hand moved.

"_If so, whatever lies ahead will be the realization of her dream."_

He opened the door.

"_But she might also not be God, as she abandoned this world once and it went on regardless. And I thought, if what she left behind was the true world, God's world, what was the place she escaped to?"_

Finally, he stepped outside.

"_Her own world. A place where all her wishes would come true, the ultimate haven. Having tasted it once, why didn't she ever form it anew? How could she resist the temptation? But, after the snow mountain incident, when I found my powers couldn't always reach her, I understood she had simply relocated it, her-"_

He gave the room a farewell glance.

"_-divine space."_

The door to the SOS-dan clubroom began closing behind him. The room's interior was an abstract shape of color on the omnipresent black – as the door closed and the final crack of light vanished behind the barrier, the room disappeared. From his sight and from the world.

He scanned his surroundings.

"_You may or may not take my hand and go there. The decision is yours, sa. There is only one thing I can guarantee you."_

Blackness, like paint splashed over everything. But he wasn't covered in darkness. There was light, tremendous amounts of light coming from pulsating and swirling blobs of goo, there simply wasn't anything for them to illuminate.

"_I have no idea what awaits you on the other side."_

Back then, he had felt strangely reassured, as if the thought that, for once, he was not the only one being kept in the dark was something to rejoice about. Now he wasn't so sure about it.

He made a courageous step forward, doing his best not to think about the fact that the light was also coming from below his feet, which meant there was no actual ground to support him.

He didn't fall, somehow. So he made another step and then another.

Taking a stroll amidst nothing, with no goal in mind and no longer a place to return to, he feared looking at the blobs and hated staring into the never-ending chasm of darkness. He was growing sick. Scared. He would turn around but, what was behind him if not more darkness?

He noticed it because it was so normal.

Reflecting the light, so very near to him. He walked up to the thing and lifted it to his eyes.

A slip of paper. Small, as if someone had torn a single page into twenty parts. Burned around the edges, dirtied with mud and oddly disfigured. As if it had hugged the sole of someone's shoe to escape total annihilation.

Kyon stared at the surface of the paper intently. When nothing happened, he only intensified his glare. Things sometimes worked like that. They did, now.

"If you are reading this"

The words appeared on the slip of paper, barely legible as the black ink mixed with the mud on the paper. Kyon didn't dare try to remove the dirt lest he damage the paper further. The words looked as if they had been typed on a computer, but Kyon knew.

This was Yuki's handwriting.

"a number of conditions"

The words replaced the previous ones to form a message.

"have been met. Suzumiya"

"Haruhi, Tsuruya, the Canopy"

"Domain no longer exist. Also"

"you are surrounded by an"

"infinite field of unstructured"

"energy."

Kyon blinked in worry as the text disappeared for a second with nothing to replace it. But then more words appeared.

"You wonder what you can"

"do. But there is nothing you"

"can't do."

This was all.

Kyon held the note in trembling hands. This wasn't like Yuki at all. This was some very bad joke! This was-

Lazily, the invisible writing hand formed a final message.

"If all else fails"

"pray."

That last word would remain on the paper forever. Kyon looked at it, as hard as he could, as long as he could, and his eyes were watering. The paper had become painfully bright. And not because it shined its own light.

Kyon raised his head to see that the hungry, demanding orange blobs had crept closer to him and had him surrounded. They wanted him, he knew, somehow he knew.

So he prayed.

**Epilogue**

…**They Bring Light to the Dawn of a New Day.**

Kyon chocked on the hot tea. His grasp on the plastic cup faltered and it fell to the table, bouncing merrily once as it landed bottom edge down. The contents sprung out of the cup and went for their entirely unsuspecting victim.

"Ouch!"

That unfortunate soul, Taniguchi, jumped in his seat, hit his knees on the table, withdrew his burned hands, and yelled in pain and surprise, whatever it was he was talking about (that tenth volume never coming out?) immediately forgotten.

Kyon's eyes flew over his friend without really noticing him.

"Haruhi!"

The cafeteria fell silent and all eyes went to him.

He wasn't about to start explaining his behavior, though. He didn't understand it himself. Why he had screamed out that name. Why his feet carried him oh so fast, regardless of any obstacle they might meet, out of the room and toward – toward what?

He threw the door open and rushed through the corridor, passing startled students, classrooms and message boards and barely registering any of them.

And then he halted with all his strength, a wild double take that took all sense of balance away from him. The people around him distanced themselves in a belated reaction, seemingly subconsciously believing he would break into a run again and smash right into them. But all of his attention was already on something else.

Alleviated with curiosity, his panic miraculously disappeared. He walked up to the newspaper clipping on the wall which had caused him to pause, looking it over and over without comprehension.

**Nature-loving student activist group to perform at the ****United Nations Climate Change Conference ****in Poznan.**

So it announced, happily listing the names of the youths involved. Kyon didn't have to read that, though. There was a picture, and he recognized the faces in it easily enough.

In a simple black dress with a white flower motif to lighten it up and with a violin resting on her shoulder, Tachibana Kyouko. Always willing to play second fiddle to her friends in everyday life, but here the one leading, escaping, captivating the audience and running away with the show, forever the type to make small mistakes but spare no expense of effort to make up for them.

On the opposite end of the picture, Fujiwara. Hair slightly messy, shirt unbuttoned and hands wrapped lazily around his cello. Rugged, full of angst, mysterious and taciturn. All that made him a sex magnet for females. All qualities that made males hate him with a passion. He himself seemed not to care about either.

A step or two further away from the camera, Sasaki. Always the backbone. The backbone of the environmental movement. The backbone of their instrumental quartet. Dressed in a womanly suit, Sasaki would sit in the back and do her job and do it well. The viola – its presence undervalued until it falls silent, leaving a chasm within sound in its wake.

Finally, Suou. Kyon could barely tell her form apart from the dark background of the picture. She sat behind a piano, only the upper part of her body visible and even that lost in the cascade of her long hair and melting into the wall behind her – black on black concealed by black. Her dark eyes pierced the space before her, her back was stiff, demeanor as mechanical as it always was, even when she would start playing. Except then her self would disappear into the piano in a different way altogether, conveying what was hidden, invoking what was desired, holding and releasing, rising and descending, relentlessly, adamantly and irrepressibly. In the waterfall of sound, she seemed to vanish completely and nevertheless there was no time when she was more visible.

They could do miracles with music, he remembered…

No, he didn't.

He took a step back away from the wall, breath suddenly stuck in his throat. It was wrong. No, it wasn't right.

"Hmph. A lecture about carbon dioxide and bam! people want to hear them play. Classical, of all things."

Kyon's head turned to trail the dissatisfied voice back to its source, to the girl standing beside him with her arms crossed and a deep frown on her face, to Suzumiya Haruhi.

XXX

_What right does he have to state a desire?_

XXX

Nothing had ever pained Kyon more than seeing Haruhi just two steps away from him.

Holding his own happiness in hands too weak to support it, knowing it will fall and shatter.

""It's not like we aren't two times better – and they'll have no choice but to admit that at the next rehearsal."

Haruhi turned to him with that expression of hers – inviting protest merely for the purpose of beating it back. Her own version of seeking acceptance. One could say it was horribly flawed. Kyon would say it was Haruhi.

Out of habit, his own features twisted into a patented look of annoyed incredulity.

A joke of what he really felt.

"Sorry, Haruhi."

She could only blink in surprise as Kyon hurriedly walked away, as if there was something he had to do that could justify ignoring even her.

But no. He was simply running away.

XXX

_Which one?_

_The one question he feared._

XXX

Kyon's next destination was more of a coincidence than anything else.

The third year students had already started preparing to leave the school grounds after their last PE class, some disappearing inside the changing room while others loitered around the playing field, either collecting balls and other equipment or just gossiping and walking to cool off.

Kyon spied Tsuruya in one such group of laughing girls. He raised a hand hoping to catch her attention. One of Tsuruya's friends did notice him and pointed in his direction. He couldn't hear what was being said, but, after breaking into a shared giggle, the group left Tsuruya behind for her to meet him.

"Hi," he didn't know what else to say.

"Hi there, Kyon-kun-n," Tsuruya greeted him merrily with a friendly smile on her face.

He didn't respond to that. He waited for her to say something. That this was an illusion. Or that Haruhi had created this world to better suit her whims. Or that they were in an alternate dimension. Anything that would tell him how real the people he had passed on the corridor truly were. How real the Haruhi he had met was.

Tsuruya kept silent, her gaze becoming quizzical as the silence between them stretched.

"What did you do?" he finally blurted out to her questioning face "Today? Yesterday?"

For a moment, Tsuruya's expression didn't change and it seemed she didn't know what was really asked of her. Then her eyes widened, cheeks reddened and lips formed a small pout.

"The rumors spread so quickly, nyoro?" she asked, turning her eyes away from him "I passed the ball to Mizuki-chan, sa, I was a bit distracted, but I didn't intend to break her nose."

Tsuruya didn't look back up.

"Is that so?"

Kyon's voice was like iron – powerless anger the blade and pained disappointment the cold.

"Be careful next time."

He spun on his toes and prepared to leave, not bothering with goodbyes. He ignored the hurt look Tsuruya gave him.

"Kyon-kun… I…"

But he wouldn't stop.

"I… didn't destroy the world, did I?"

Now he turned.

He didn't know what Tsuruya read from his expression. He just saw her curl up, tremble; he heard her nervous laugh.

"That wasn't a dream, nyoro?"

Everyone had left.

There were the two. There was his anger, her pain, his disappointment, her confusion, his stiffness, her trembling.

There was their fear.

Whoever the person before him was, Kyon understood she wouldn't be able to answer to his satisfaction.

"What did you do?"

He kept staring at her, as if to peer deep inside her soul and grasp what she herself held only a wisp of.

She took her time answering his question – collecting herself, collecting the pieces, collecting the pieces of who she saw herself to be and who she thought herself to be, trying to match them like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, frightened of the image they would form, if they would form one at all.

But after a minute of this, she allowed herself an accepting sigh, flashed Kyon an apologetic smile, straightened, looked up to the heavens and answered.

"I made myself a crown of thyme."

XXX

"The evolutionary path taken by data entities thus created did subsequently lead to the establishing of an Integrated Data Thought System. However, this system lacks independent cognitive ability and is only a means of maintaining a data network between fully autonomous agents such as myself."

This was the second thing Nagato had told him since he entered the clubroom. The first one hadn't been 'hello' either.

Unsurprisingly, he felt right at home.

"Time travel retains its status as a marginally accessible timeline manipulation method that has yet to be invented at this point in the timeline. Notably, the processes required for it now only support the travel of objects backwards in time. No personnel sent to travel in time possess the ability to return home after having made the journey. Only information registered in a time traveler's mind is collected and transmitted forward to the future by self-maintaining wave-webs."

Kyon wondered whether he should be happy with the obvious implications of this for Mikuru.

"The esper organizations have existed for centuries, searching for people with unusual talents and incorporating them into their ranks. Their main objective remains the protection of individuals they consider divine."

"Haruhi?"

"No data creation or other significantly outstanding process has been observed in regards to Suzumiya Haruhi."

"And the Canopy Domain?"

"Similarly to the Entity, the Canopy Domain does not exist on its own – it is believed that all of its probability manipulation potential became a subset of Suou Kuyou's consciousness. Contact has been made with Suou Kuyou herself. However, she is currently focused on mastering the manual ability of playing the piano and has not sought interaction with us."

That's some improvement, right?

"Who knows that there was a world before this one?"

"Conceivably, only you, me and Tsuruya are aware of any changes that occurred."

"Why's that?"

"Likely, your awareness was transported rather than recreated in the undetermined processes that led to the creation of this world."

"And you two?"

"The letter you recall could have been a batch of backup programs set to use up its energy reserves gradually depending on circumstances. One part of the program would then be personality data transmission. As the letter was heavily damaged, neither me nor Tsuruya possess perfect recollection of the previous world. Nevertheless, one thing is certain."

"That is?"

"Of the transferred personality data, every bit is a perfect match to the personality data currently in use. Despite all the differences, people's personalities have remained unchanged."

Having said the good news, Nagato rose and prepared to leave.

"Where are you going?"

The interface stopped just for a second to answer this question.

"To the airport. To welcome Asakura Ryoko back from Canada."

XXX

He didn't come back home until late.

It wasn't that he had errands to run or anything. He hadn't met with Mikuru or Itsuki yet, but he didn't really feel the need to confront them immediately. They were the same old people, Nagato had assured him, except that in this world they didn't know he knew about them and their real missions. Either way, he didn't have the fuel left in him for more reintroductions.

Haruhi had called, and some dozen times at that. It convinced him to turn his cell phone off. How he would answer any of her questions was entirely beyond him.

Or maybe he would say he felt unwell that day, which was most certainly the truth, and keep silent about the rest of his troubles. This Haruhi had no idea who she had been or who she could be.

"Tadaima," I'm home. He said this while entering his house, half out of habit and half with full awareness of what he was doing – attempting to tame the strange place and make it his again.

Nobody answered him. Somehow, he knew his parents were spending the afternoon at their neighbor's. this knowledge was raw, with no memory of how he acquired it connected to it.

He took off his shoes and entered with a sigh.

He had passed the day wandering in circles and even now the idea of busying himself with more productive activities seemed somehow preposterous. He thought about sleeping, but the calm of his bed would merely foster his doubts and misgivings.

Finally, he decided on having a snack. Nothing occupies the mind like the intake of food does. He would drop off his bag in his room first, though. Skipping half of his classes was enough disrespect for his duties for one day.

He reached the staircase to the upper floor with all those thoughts swirling in his mind and looked absently upward while making the first step up.

The top seemed distant.

Distant like nothing else.

Kyon lurched forward. It was not an immediate blackout. The headache worsened gradually, it was simply too sudden for him to have time to move elsewhere or cry for help. He could only grab his throbbing head, lie on the stairs and fall into the darkness.

XXX

Kyon entered the Hive.

He held his eyes closed. He simply knew opening them would enforce a lie upon him, like a man with bound feet falling over as he tries to run against all odds. No, there was no need for sight at all. He was experiencing the world fully even without it: the colored clusters around him, the buzzing and humming, the sweet scent, the warmth and the delicate hand holding his own. They were all in his mind, undiluted by his senses. To open one's eyes, to spitefully demand proof for what was real enough, would be both foolish and a crime.

Instead, he listened in to the flow of sounds encircling him. He let himself be carried by what he did and did not understand. The melody came and went, flashing a vibrant hue there to be drowned out by a morose shade elsewhere, sending ripples through his consciousness, growing more and more detailed, or was it merely him understanding it ever deeper? Already, this requiem for everything lost revealed itself to him as a debate, creation rising from chaos.

And then, when he was about to grasp its meaning, the song fell silent, abandoning him.

Single voices picked up where the choir had left off, delivering what seemed to be a single line of incomprehensible buzzing each before growing quiet.

"What makes it different from us?"

The human voice of whoever was holding his hand translated for his benefit.

"Abandon it!"

"The last semblance of meaning?!"

"If it was flawed?!"

The words themselves sounded intimidating, but his companion repeated them with an air of calmness and soothing confidence. At least, Kyon knew he was not alone.

And to his surprise, the moment the last of the buzzing comments died down, his new friend spoke up.

"What if it doesn't stop at all?" for the first time, he felt the texture of this voice. He found it to be like honey: thick, teasing, golden within, where it enslaved luminescence, and silver on its edge, where reflected light painted the boundaries of each falling droplet, its scent permeating air, taking it as its own demesne "If we were to leave it in his hands? He is one in this world. Doesn't that make him the God of this world?"

His mind froze in surprise.

The hues disappeared.

Then they exploded anew, noticing him for the first time, examining and assessing him. It was a tangible and distressing pressure bearing down upon him. He wanted release from their judgment, to escape, to open his eyes even if it would mean losing this world forever.

The hand grasping his gave him a reassuring squeeze. The colors retreated and regrouped. A second of uneasy silence and another low hum.

"What right does he have to state a desire?"

Kyon's companion repeated the question for his sake before launching into a retort.

"And what else do we have left to rely on?"

Kyon didn't understand it, but the counter-question seemed to give the voices pause.

"**What is your desire?"**

The voices addressed Kyon directly. Now he understood every word. Impulsively, he wanted to respond with the first thought that came to mind. The logical part of his mind held him back, gave him time to question the hasty decision. But at the same time, he knew the resistance was meaningless. There was only one thing he wanted to do – fix the mess they had allowed to happen. And there was only one way of going about it right.

"I want Haruhi to be happy."

Invitation for a storm.

"**No such girl exists."**

He wouldn't wonder what could be, because there was nothing that couldn't be.

"**This, to decide everything?"**

What else even counted?

"**When you know not what the desire entails?"**

As if one man's selfishness could ever be preferable to another's happiness.

"**Which one?"**

The one question he feared.

If, despite all his efforts, the new Haruhi were to be created to his liking, her qualities forming a shadow of her former self, it would be nothing but his ultimate loss.

But if this was his greatest fear, then it was a small one. How could he hesitate now, with a reliable guardian by his side and the faith of Tsuruya, Nagato and Haruhi behind him?

"Suzumiya Haruhi. The one whose existence now lets me say her name."

Like studio lights after a shooting ends, all the colors suddenly disappeared.

"That were two wishes, you know," a whisper directly into his ear "To have a happy world and to have it feel like the old one," and then the voice transformed into one with a trickster's edge to it "What would your third wish be, then?"

There, at arm's reach, recognition, but-

He stopped feeling the world. The subtle sensations died out, overwhelmed by the sense of a chasm pulling him into its depths. The warm hand released its grasp on him and he flew back.

He gasped. His eyes snapped open.

A face framed in golden and brown.

But he had opened his eyes.

XXX

The wood of the staircase had dug unpleasantly deep into his forehead and the resulting red mark would take some time to disappear. Kyon guessed some repercussions were in order for choosing that specific napping place.

Or maybe it was just a trade-off for regaining that last invaluable memory.

He picked himself up, lifted the dropped bag and laughed.

The quiet sound carried well.

He went up the stairs enjoying the feeling of the vile headache leaving him be. Had Tsuruya remembered as violently as he had? Destroying the world. Saving the world. Both were good enough reasons for being a bit shaken. Their sweet burdens. But the truth offered more freedom than it did chains.

He noted the room to his room was halfway open and quickly guessed the cause behind that. He could have been careless in the morning and left it that way, of course, but there was an even more likely version of events.

He entered the room to see his sister hunched over their, now greatly distressed, cat.

While both noticed him, their reactions were nothing alike. The girl froze in embarrassed surprise; the feline bolted with all the speed it could muster, slipping between Kyon's legs and into the corridor. Kyon's eyes trailed after the retreating pet with full sympathy for its predicament.

He approached his younger sister with a soft sigh and an affected look of displeasure on his face. The young girl let out a nervous laugh and took half a step back as her brother reached out a hand toward her.

Kyon rested his hand on her head and ruffled her hair affectionately.

She looked up at him in surprise. The glittering light of the dying day fell on her wide eyes and caught her delicate features in its golden rays.

"It's fine if you don't answer."

He let his hand fall to his side and slowly smiled at her. She only blinked, not understanding what he meant, but a return smile found its way to her lips.

Kyon took a step back.

"It's fine if you don't know."

That divine smile a divine lie?

He fell to his knees.

The birds sang deliciously to say goodbye to the setting sun.

"Who are you?"

**Ten Hundred Thousand Suns Rising to Hail You**

**END**

* * *

AN:

Thank you.

Thank you to Theos Amneos, Mercedes no Inuarai, BrazeRancor, Aphotic Bandit and everyone else who showed support throughout the making of this story.

Thank you to my shadow readers. It's your last chance to comment on this, now ;).

This is the end, but ends are merely new beginnings, right?

Until we meet again.

~ Cytrus


End file.
